Mustang sales losing traction so far this year
The sports coupe has been a bright spot for Ford. But sales fell in January and February.
By Tom Krisher, The Associated Press
March 12, 2007

DETROIT — The latest version of Ford's iconic Mustang appears to be growing old, and back-to-back monthly sales declines to start 2007 have the struggling company a little worried.
The new Mustang, which made its debut in the fall of 2004, has been a bright spot for Ford at a time when bright spots have been few.
So when Mustang sales dropped by 19% in January and February compared with the same months in 2006, executives became concerned.
"It's gotten our attention because when a high-volume product like that declines as much as that, we want to see what we might want to do," said George Pipas, Ford Motor Co.'s top sales analyst.
A drop in Mustang sales should be a worry for Ford. Overall U.S. sales slipped 8% last year. The company sold 160,975 Mustangs in 2005 and 166,530 in 2006, big numbers in the mid-size sports coupe market, a segment considered to be a niche.
"It did phenomenally well for a while, due in part to [being] really the only car in the segment," said David Lucas, vice president of Autodata Corp. "It was exciting. It appealed both to young people and the people who remember what the Mustang used to be."
Pipas said even Ford was surprised at the car's staying power when sales continued to grow last year, though it is during the second full year when sales usually begin to decline for most models.
"Two months is hardly a litmus test for the entire year, particularly when the two months aren't big sales months for anything, let alone two-door sports coupes," Pipas said.
Still, Ford is working to keep the Mustang fresh with new variations that keep the car exciting, as well as gearing up new promotions heading into the spring and summer, traditionally the Mustang's best sales months, spokesman Alan Hall said.
The company just began shipping new versions of a Shelby GT Mustang, and sometime next year, it plans a dark-green "Bullitt" version reminiscent of the 1968 Fastback Mustang GT that Steve McQueen drove in the classic movie.

Cars with sportier body styles like the Mustang traditionally have shorter life cycles than more conventional cars, said Tom Libby, J.D. Power & Associates' senior director of industry analysis. The Mustang, because of its name and status, has defied that at times, Libby said.
Still, Ford must do everything it can to protect the Mustang's turf, he said.
"That model is a core model for them," he said. "They can't let this one fall off its perch."
The company's other remaining icon, the F-series pickup truck, also has seen its sales drop and is facing heavy competition from General Motors Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp.
Competition for the Mustang is only going to get worse when Dodge resurrects the Challenger muscle car in 2008 and Chevrolet comes out with the new Camaro early in 2009.
"When you've got the Mustang and the Camaro and the Challenger going head-to-head, the winner is the consumer because it's going to put a lot of downward pressure on prices," Libby said.
Ford won't say when a new Mustang will hit showrooms, but Pipas said he wouldn't be surprised to see it sooner than later.
"This is a product where you like to redesign the product and give these loyal buyers something to look at every four years or so," he said.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...,6137411.story

 

Pretty insightful comments all around.

I do think Ford needs to be yet more aggressive in keeping the Stang fresh. As mentioned, sporty cars in general have a shorter life cycle than regular cars and I think retro-styled cars probably already have had the clock running a bit, style wise, even before they hit the street due to some already existing degree of familiarity.

Pipas seems well aware of this, and his intentions sound good, but I hope Ford does perk up the cycle a bit as they typically have a bad history of letting the sportier cars age and whither on the vine a bit too long. He does mention that "This is a product where you like to redesign the product and give these loyal buyers something to look at every four years or so." With the Stang, the previous chassis wasn't truly redesigned for a quarter century, though with more superficial refreshes every 6 years or so.

While I doubt the '10 will be an extensive redesign -- I just don't think Ford has either the wherewithal nor drive to do that -- it will hopefully be a very extensive refresh going well beyond the styling alone. If that recent poll was any indication, they may well be actually have a good and thorough redo coming along with some real meat under the skin. At least the bean-counters, who have evicerated the product line in the recent past, seem to have been deprived of their veto powers by Mullaly and are less likely to screw things up for short term penny pinching.

This need for substantial improvement will be especially true once the Camaro and Challenger arrive on the scene, the first truly direct competition the Stang will face. Also, the next GTO won't be far off either and presuming it will be a touch larger and upmarket of the Camaro, will attack the upper end of the Stang market. Each of these cars easily has the potential to be VERY good cars, at least Ford should assume as much (never underestimate your enemy). The poll items relating to the 375hp 5.0 backed by a six speed cog-swapper would be one good indication here, along with an IRS to keep the Stang on equal footing with the like suspended pony car competitors.

And don't forget some less direct competitors that will be getting revamps soon, including the 350Z, G37 Coupe, RX-8 among others that stand to whittle away sales at the periphery. It does sound like Ford is pondering improvements (3.5 V6 (base and TT upmarket?), IRS,6 speed, Paddle shift) that will protect against and perhaps make real incursions into the import competition and go beyond pandering to the base, as it were.

Ford's REALLY going to need to get on the ball with the Stang in a way in which they haven't (had to) in quite a while, let's keep our fingers crossed they don't lose spine and booger it up.

 

Repost
Same article, different headline
http://forums.bradbarnett.net/showthread.php?t=61586

and here :
http://forums.bradbarnett.net/showthread.php?t=61587

Jeebus! The press are just waiting with baited breath to see the Mustang fail. They each come up with their own clever headline....

 

Thank you for the repostsssssssssss

 

That has to be the stupidest article I've ever read. As compared to WHAT, exactly?

The Mustang currently has ZERO competition.

The car has only been out for 2.5 years. Using that article's logic, every 2.5 year-old model vehicle on the road is in desperate need of a refresh.

Honestly, I think some of these idiots apply different standards to Ford than they do to other brands. Now if you want to criticize specific shortcomings or cost-cutting in this car (god knows I have) that's different, but this is a classic case of someone providing an answer to a question that no-one was asking.

 

I usually agree with you, but here I think you're flogging a non-issue. The Challenger will be an expensive, limited production car from a company that is on its last legs; the Camaro will definitely be a serious contender, but by the time it arrives - and the hype about it wears down - Ford will debut a new Mustang (probably a stylistic evolution of the current car, which is a good thing because the current car is still one of the best looking coupes on the road) that will likely match or better the Camaro for engine performance and will doubtless have the IRS so many of us have been crying out for.

I think we're LOOKING for problems that don't yet exist here, folks. Sure, it would have been nice to have had a 400HP SE by now, but really, why does Ford need it RIGHT NOW? They still own this market segment, and by the time the competition arrives, they will doubtless have something out to answer the challenge.

 

i can't help but notice the last word in your statment. it somehow, magically changed!!!??? hahaha

 

I beg to differ:

http://www.blueovalnews.com/index.ph..._articleid=501

"Ford Mustang Share up Sharply : The Mustang dramatically improved its market share in the sporty coupe segment in the first two months of the year, rising from 39 percent in 2006 to 51 percent today. While overall sales are down so far this year, the spring and summer selling seasons (March – August) account for more than half of annual sales."

 

I think the Mustang will hold its own in 07 with unit sales around the same as 06. Two months is not enough to draw conclusions. Yes, it's not perfect. Yes, Ford as a company has A LOT of work ahead of them if they want to survive as a company but let's give the Mustang a break. It is a shinning star in Ford's otherwise just OK line up.
Long live the Mustang!

 

Customer service ? we all liked what we saw and now I think that many are well aware of some poor service areas ? ah with the Big makup on the Shelby's it may help cover , scrap that it's the Dealer Gouging there.

 

Well chalk up one more sale for March....just got my GT/CS vert yesterday

 

I'm not sure who said this but it is very true. There are three basic mistruths, lies, d * m n e d lies, and statistics. The latter of which can be made to show anything you want. I custom ordered my '06 GT in October of '05 but I did not receive it until mid February '06. I'm guessing the sale counted towards February's sales figure. I had to wait several months for my car to be manufactured and arrive. Does that sound like poor demand to you? How many dealers are taking orders right now that won't be finalized for a few months or sales concluded until next month. Even though the S197 has been out for some time now, there are still many people out there saving their dollars to buy one. The bulk of Mustang sales season is just arriving now. In New England or other cold climates no dealer in his right mind would fill their inventory with stangs. The local dealerships are just now getting ready for the rush of spring sales that won't stop until winter. I wish all FORD models were as successful. I hope we all see the day when they are out of financial trouble because they are an American icon that I hope will be here forever. How many years has it been since AMC went under? I walk around the neighborhood or drive around seeing one foreign car after another. Yeah I know many of them are built here but it's still a very sad sight to see. To many dollars are flowing overseas.

 

I personally think sales would continue to fall. I hate to say it but yesterday someone at work compared the mustang to a cavalier/sunfire. Quote "there are as many mustangs, if not more, on the road now as there is cavaliers and sunfires. I was thinking about buying one but why would I want something that everyone else has".

At least I can still say I was one of the first to own one......but if I didn't buy one yet I too would hold off and see if there is a redesign in the future just because of how many there are driving around now.

 

Ponyonfire - your argument about the time of year doesn't quite hold water since the loss is comparing this year's data with last year's. My local dealer has about a dozen GTs on the lot and at least 20 V6s. The majority of them were delivered last summer. The commentary regarding foreign cars is a plight the US automakers have brought on themselves. There has historically been an attitude that American products are the best and always will be. The thinking was "if we build it, they will buy it". That worked for quite a while and everyone accepted the poor quality and reliability until they had alternate choices. The Japanese (Toyota was the pioneer) have the mentality that they must never rest on their laurels and must always improve their products. Toyota is now slated to overtake GM as the top manufacturer in the world in the next few years. All the while GM keeps plodding along building cars to fill rental lots. Quality has certainly improved, but they're not there yet. Ford was in the same boat, but they're seeing the light. The tranisition will take some time, as well as the rebuilding of their brand image, but I think they're on the right track. That said, the Mustang will certainly carry on. It's normal for sales to drop off as a model starts to age. That's why they keep injecting new variants and models as the platform ages. We'll be able to get Bullits next year, so I'm sure there will be a boost. Colors and options are added in hopes to lure folks to trade their current stangs for a fresh one more suited to their tastes. The drop this year is a bit steeper than expected, but not a great tragedy. I did my part, I just ordered one! I'm actually hoping the down turn will speed up my build!

 

No offense, but does it really matter what everybody else drives? I mean, if you like the car, then buy it. Just because a lot of people own one doesn't change what the car is. I can understand where they are coming from, and how they may want to have something more unique or exclusive, but I think one of the greatest things about the Mustang is that a lot of people own them and it creates a way for people to connect and have fun and share the same passion. Isn't that why we have this site? I like the feeling of passing another Mustang owner on the road and exchanging waves and inspecting each other's cars.

I think the sales drop is just a combination of factors: Ford's decline, winter sales lags, cut back on fleet sales, dying down of initial hype, mid cycle, and then there's probably a lot of people anticipating the new Camaro and Challenger. I've also seen quite a few people skeptical of buying a current Mustang until they know what the next refresh entails, so that could be holding sales back. I think that it would be in Ford's best interest to at some point in the next year give us some sort of insight into the refresh, it'll keep too many people from jumping ship to Chevy or Dodge. It could further erode current bodystyle sales because people will be willing to wait for the better refresh, but I think that drop is inevitable anyway, and they can atleast keep too many people from straying over to the competition to ensure decent sales for the next generation. Once the Camaro and Challenger are out though, even if only on a limited basis, Mustang sales will drop significantly. Currently there isn't any real competition, and the market segment isn't that big and I think that the Mustang is lucky to have 100,000+ sales to begin with. So as the competition starts hitting the streets, we should all expect Mustang sales to decline somewhat and stablize at a lower number.

 

Yeah i don't get that argument either.. if its a great car and you like it then why not buy it. If you want to be unique go buy yourself a yugo.. I'm sure you will not see anyone else driving one. But don't blame me when its a peice of crap.

 

As we get closer to the camaro release, i think you are going to see more and more customers sitting on their wallets and delaying their decision to buy until they see all the alternatives. It doesn't bother me to see Mustang sales on a decline. That is good news for me as a customer. It means that Ford and the dealer will have to work harder to sell me a Mustang.

 

No offense taken, after all I have one I was just saying what other people's thoughts were (non-mustang owners).

 

I'm not too concerned about the Camaro taking a lot of sales away from the Mustang. Right off the bat, the first advantage the Mustang will have over the upcoming Camaro is price. Because the Mustang doesn't have IRS, it keeps the price lower than the Camaro will be.

The second, is the fact that the Mustang is an icon that has survived for 43 years. Think about it, the S197s do not any badges that say "Mustang" or "Ford", yet everybody knows exactly what it is.

Third, We outnumber the Camaro enthusiasts!

 

Why does Ford need a 400HP SE Mustang RIGHT NOW? Because there are thousands of people who want to buy it. Thats why!