Ford sales plunge 21 percent

[TexasLawyer]

Source: CNNMoney

Ford sales plunge 21 percent

U.S. automaker continues to lose ground to imports as sharp fall
likely leaves it beyond Toyota once again.
October 2 2007: 12:11 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Ford Motor saw sales fall more than 20 percent in September, as the embattled U.S. automaker continues to lose market share.

The company saw its overall sales down 20.5 percent to 189,863 vehicles. Sales of light trucks, which includes pickups, SUV's and the so-called crossover vehicles, fell 9 percent, while the sale of car models plunged 38.9 percent. The decline was widespread across its brand, with only Lincoln and Land Rover posting a sales gain.

The drop was even worse than the 17.7 percent decline forecast by sales tracker Edmunds.com.

Ford (Charts, Fortune 500) has been steadily losing market share and in August it fell behind Japanese rival Toyota Motor (Charts) in year-to-date U.S. sales for the first time. Toyota is also expected to post a decline in U.S. sales in September, but it is expected to post only a narrow decline that may keep it in the No. 2 spot.



Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/02/news/companies/autosales/index.htm?postversion=2007100212

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I thought the plummeting dollar was supposed to "help" US manufacturers.

[Tab]

1. Only for exports n/t

[TexasLawyer]

4. These figures are total vehicles sold, which includes exports

Also, exchange rates are supposed to make imports relatively more expensive to people paying in US dollars.

Bad news for Ford if, in spite of these economic factors supposedly in it's favor, it still finds sales dropping off steeply.

Some theories-- the people who might otherwise be buying Fords don't have the money for new cars; and other car makers are selling a better product.

[Tab]

15. No, what I meant was...

a weak dollar is better for the sales of stuff we're exporting. It won't protect us locally. Those numbers might include exports, but didja ever notice the biggest market for cars by the Big Three manufacturers is here in the states? I don't know what percentage exports are, but I'm pretty sure the bulk of their sales are domestic. No one wants to buy these things but rah-rah-god-and-country Americans.

[ozone_man]

19. A weak dollar makes European and Japanese imports more expensive to U.S. consumers

which should promote U.S. car buying. But that appears not to be the case.

I think the overall gloomy economic picture is prevailing (the consumer is tapped out), coupled with the the fact that Detroit won't produce fuel efficient cars. They're too expensive to drive, so people are holding back or buying more more efficient foreign cars.

[jimnasium]

2. Crappy Cars + Crappy Dollar

Equals Big-time losses for Ford

Don't worry, though - we taxpayers will be there to bail you out! (again)

[juno jones]

3. Seems like Ford

is jumping off the same cliff Chrysler did in the 80's. Making unattractive, impractical cars that break down a lot. Even Chevy did it with those awful 'X' cars. I bet the crown vic is only in front because of it's long use as a law enforcement car. God knows the LE crowd has the money to spend on what is essentially a dinosaur throwback to the late, lamented gasoline orgy that was the twentieth century.

We need smaller cars, more diesels and hybrids, That's another flashback too, to the oil crisies of the seventies. I know my dad sold his plymouth fury for $150 (17 MPG highway) and bought a diesel rabbit(as much as 70 MPG highway)that the family ran well into the 90's.

[Javaman]

14. didn't ford III say something about coming out with something big

blah blah blah a little while ago?

smoke and mirrors. US auto makers just don't get it.

[jmowreader]

25. That "dinosaur throwback" has a LOT of advantages as a police car

First, it's huge. It's big enough to put three handcuffed suspects in the back seat. And with that big roomy bench seat in the front, your partner, your electronics stack, your shotgun and your sack of donuts all fit comfortably in the front of the car.

Second, it's rear-wheel drive, which police officers like.

It's also got enough room under the hood to mount a police alternator and a police battery, and enough horsepower to turn that cop alternator. (The police alternator is one of the big reasons retired police cars are supplanting SUVs as the vehicle of choice for young black men--you can drive a HUGE stereo with the juice off that alternator.)

Oh yeah: it also LOOKS like a police car. It's got that "get out of the gas NOW" feel to it, the ephemeral quality that makes people obey speed limits and signal for turns any time one is in the neighborhood.

[ingac70]

5. Ford put all its eggs in one basket...

A few years back by making the mainstay of their business trucks. It has come back to bite them in the ass, and the folks currently running Ford are to stupid to get out of this mess.....

[CatholicEdHead]

6. Only Lincoln and Land Rover making money

Well, that tells you who has money to spend.

[makhno]

9. Spot on

That jumped out at me as well. A family member of mine is in the high-end watch business and he's telling me sales have never been higher, including in the US market.

I guess the credit crunch and the collapse of various over-ambitious trading schemes haven't really dented the ability of the rentier class to purchase "essentials" such as IWC watches and fancy cars. NetJets just purchased an extra nine Dassault Falcon biz jets, so I guess our oligarchs aren't hurting too bad.

[TexasLawyer]

11. Lincoln Navigators-- Also a favorite of rappers, drug dealers

and flashy sports figures like David Beckham, who owns a pimped-out black and silver one.

[makhno]

13. Driving one is saying "I have arrived"

Aided by the media (and the willing pop-culture icons in the music, sports and "other" industries), this garbage has come to symbolize the American dream, just as owning one's house (not with a balloon loan), or having a color TV, or two cars symbolized lower to middle-class success in decades past.

It's an interesting question. The auto industry could have very well decided that a fairly fuel-efficient vehicle such as a sports sedan could symbolize American success and manhood. But they didn't. Why has the SUV become the symbol of modern American success?

And no, I don't buy the rapper as a country-wide trend-setter. If it were true, we'd all be cruisin' down the streets in our six-fo's.

Oil? Some national fixation on the big? I truly don't know.

[Deja Q]

17. Commercials wordlessly speak volumes as to their target audiences.

The brand name alone does it all.

That's a prime reason how FOX News loses a lot of credibility; it's clear they're advertising to only one group. While talking about topics that affect far more than the group they advertise to.

[JCMach1]

27. In Dubai, someone driving a Landrover can automatically be assumed

to be an idiot driver... By American standards, read INSANE!

I despise them!

[Orsino]

7. I was sure that this figure would be mostly due...

...to people unable to afford SUVs and trucks. But it's the cars, predominantly.

[Roland99]

8. Mercedes-Benz sales up 13%

Anyone got a clue what's going on?


:(





The haves have more. The have nots have less and less.

[makhno]

10. Check post #6

The brands say it all.

[makhno]

12. A question of class

A couple of posters noticed the trend of luxury cars carrying a brand to profitability or break-even. The working class, squeezed by high rates on car leases and loans, sticks to older vehicles (can't go green when the choice is between a new car and food on the table):

http://www.columbian.com/business/APStories/AP10022007news207827.cfm

General Motors Corp. said sales were flat compared with last September. The nation's biggest automaker got a boost from its new lineup of pickups as well as the new Cadillac CTS, which posted a 73 percent sales increase.

[Deja Q]

16. Their reputation; I know plenty of people tired of Fix Or Repair Daily...

It's not the people who assemble them as much as it is the parts they assemble. All those recalls overrule the obvious.

Like China, Ford's gotta reinvent itself. And not pin the blame on irrelevant topics. (If health insurance is the blame, let's have everybody go after them - and not the employees. But that's just spin to justify firing people for sport. The issue here is part quality. Unless somebody is unconscionably stupid, and I thought Maxwell Smart was but a fictional character, recalling 50,000 cars doesn't mean the same worker screwed up 50,000 times.)

[Lex1775]

23. Part quality is a big issue... but I won't let the workers off so easy.

I grew up in a Ford/GM dominated factory town. Across the street from my high school (literally) was a massive Ford plant. Further down the block was a little hole in the wall bar that primarily served the workers of the plant. During their lunch break (which coincided with ours) it was nothing to see them slamming down 5 or 6 beers before heading back to the assembly line or sneaking out back to take a couple hits off whatever weed was being passed around. That was in the mid 90's... I've never thought about touching a Ford since.

[feloneous cat]

18. But I thought a weak dollar would HELP manufacturing...

Oh, wait... it doesn't help out CRAPPY manufacturing...

Ford, BTW, makes MOST of it's money on credit. Despite the spin, you look there and I THINK you will find the meat of the problem.

:)

[liberal N proud]

20. But the economy is booming :-) lol

The keep telling us the economy is great while housing is stagnant and car sales going nowhere.

[happyslug]

21. Remember the drop in the Dollar only started in the last two weeks of September

So the affect of the drop in the Dollar will NOT be seen in Car sales till at least October (If NOT November). I.e. the IMPORTS already in the Country are being SOLD at the price they were IN DOLLARS at the time of importation (Which could be up to 90 days ago). My point is simple, the Drop in the Dollar had NO affect on these sales, and will not till October (and probably November).

This is further complicated by the act Both the Japanese and Chinese are holding a HUGE number of US Dollars AND thus the Dollar is NOT dropping in terms of Yens and Yuans any where NEAR what it is doing in terms of Gold and Euros. This policy of Japan will keep Japanese Cars cheap in the US unless you see a drastic plunge of the Dollar.

An observation from the Great Depression. The Dusenberg, the high end car of the time period, sold well in the early 1930s. Those who still had money had money. On the other hand by the late 1930s Dusenberg were out of business do ot lack of sales. Even the rich were hit, and after a while could no longer justify buying all the luxury goods (these purchases had the affect of giving something for left wing radicals to pounce on, and even the Rich will respond to what becomes popular, and by the late 1930s it was cars a middle Class Family could buy, not the luxury cars. I expect the same again, sales of high end cars declining after another 3-5 years of bad economic times.

[depakid]

26. Actually, that was just the most recent trough

The dollar has been falling again most of the major currencies for 5+ years.

[tabasco]

22. Crappy reliability swore me off Fords.

The last one I had turned into a nightmare at 76,000 miles. Never again.

[Purveyor]

24. Reports indicate that Toyota sales fell also and GM sales were flat... eom