Sales at the big three are down dramatically with GM leading the pack followed closely by our dearest Ford. DC seems to be impacted the least, but the news isn't good for anyone here.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051014/...autos_sales_dc

 

As I have indicated in a previous post on this subject Ford should drop vehicles that do not sell and then too they should keep vehicles that do well. For example in 1986 Ford came out with the Taurus and initially there were problems with this model but by 1994 the car had been tweaked for performance. In 2004 Ford executives decided that 2005 will be the last year for Taurus and are replacing it with a larger boxier vehicle call the Ford 500. The Taurus was a popular vehicle and Ford 500 does not appear to have the same appeal. Ford has some great vehicles in its lineup such as the Mustang, Mustang GT, Crown Victoria, Ford Trucks and the Focus. The rest of the Ford line could be dropped as these vehicles do not seem to be best sellers. If Ford wants to recover some strategic thinking is needed.

 

A couple of points:

1. The Fusion is actually the replacement for the Taurus, not the 500.

2. 500 sales actually aren't as bad as some would lead you to believe. Here's a quote from Ford's media web site regarding September car sales:

A large amount of Taurus sales were to rental fleets. So far Ford hasn't had to resort to that with the 500 nor have they had to offer large incentives.

 

Sales are slow EVERYWHERE. Its industry wide right now. The economy, the gas price scare, and the time of year all have a large impact upon sales right now.

While sales are down you've got to remember that that report is comparing sales on the employee pricing compared to now. That and a lot of people who were in the market for a new car have purchased in the last few months too.

 

Every time one Ford's vehicle get higher sales - other vehicles get lower sales. This year Mustang sales are up, but sales of 500 and Freestyle are a lot lower than sales of Taurus were a year ago. Its been like that in the past 50 years or so, every time one vehicle succed (Falcon, Mustang, even Pinto) - other's don't and Ford's sales are not higher at all.

 

Like I said earlier, a high percentage of Taurus sales were to profit-robbing rental fleets. Rental fleet sales of the 500 have been much smaller. Also, the Fusion will begin hitting the dealers in volume and I firmly believe it will sell extremely well.

 

That's true, but pre-2003 Taurus was number #3 (and #1 from 1992-1996) which is something that 500 or Freestyle or even Fusion will never do (not even combined).

 

Being that I'm a former Taurus SHO owner, I know a little Taurus history. Ford was rebating the heck out of the '92-'96 Taurus in order to get those sales numbers. Yes, they were #1 but they sacrificed profits in order to get that top spot.

 

I also used to own Taurus. It wasn't SHO, just regular 1991 3.0L. That car just wouldn't die no matter what I did to him.

 

My SHO was pretty much the same. What finally made me get rid of her was that replacement parts all had to be special ordered. Since the SHO was such a low volume car, nobody, not even Ford dealers, stocked parts for it. As it got older and parts started to wear and need replacing, it started spending more time sitting in my driveway waiting for parts to come in than it did on the road.