Ford to Kill Mammoth Excursions

 

Long time coming. Just not worth the cash to keep updating it for new emissions/crash standards at teh volume it was selling.

 

Too bad. I had reckoned on it to save the world from mini vans.

 

Just as long as the Superduty stays alive i'm happy. Maybe one day

 

Why?

Why? Why? Why?

I loved Excursion.

 

here's a shot of the extended expedition
http://www.thecarconnection.com/index.asp?...78&article=7781

everest is a cool name

 

That picture kinda looks like a truck with a shell on it.

Excursions = :notnice:

 

they often put fake body panels and stuff like that on mules so that spies will just think its a regular car or something. i agree, i think they tried to make it look like an F-150 with a box.

 

Excellent, I love the navigator, but there is no room behind the third row for cargo, Hopefully this can compete with the ESV/ Denali.

 

have they mentioned a lincoln variant of the extended expedition?

I think it would be cool if people wanting cars this big had to prove that they needed one this big, and then get some special license. They could be lax about the requirements, but i mean like, a single guy with an office job looking to impress women with his big new toy shouldn't be allowed to own one.

 

if he wants to do that, he should spend his money on a cobra or something, more impressive and takes up less space on the road.

 

I think Moosetang "kinda" touched on why the Excursion is exiting production in his post above. But, for those of you who love the truck and still ask "why" there are several reasons that makes cancelling this truck the smart move for Ford from a business standpoint. And, since business in general fascinates me much more than it should I will give my theory.

Low production alone is not what is killing this truck. The vehicle has obviously made Ford some money on the bottom line as they extended production a couple of times beyond the initial date they intended to kill it which tells you that it was covering it's fixed production costs and then some. So, it was not losing money even if it wasnt raking it in.

The first factor in the "real problem", and IMO likely the most significant one, is that the truck simply eats up too much CAFE real estate compared to production numbers for Ford to keep churning it out. This is acceptable if the car has another beefit (like a halo car), but this is not a Cobra so it really does not draw folks into the showroom where they might end up buying something more normal the way a Cobra, Vette, or Viper does.

The second "problem" area that seems pretty obvious to me is that this vehicle rolls down a spur on an assembly line that likely will not be able to build enough pickups even after Excursion production ends and it's resources are put back into HD F-Series. Start comparing costs between the two and Ford could easily make more money by simply building another 25,000 F-250 than by building 25,000 Excursions.

Made by another manufacturer, in another plant the Excursions numbers might be more than good enough. But, somewhere, in some office Ford execs have decided that the Excursion does not use the resources put into it's production to as great a benefit as other vehicles might. So, it got the axe.

 

I've heard on the contrary that SUVs make more money for the companies than pick-ups. I couldn't tell you where i read this at all, and it was a while ago, but I just remember reading somewhere that SUVs were great money makers for car companies because they'd simply take a cheap pick-up, add a passenger and cargo compartment plus some seats and mark up the price to almost double. Something like that anyways.

 

When SUV's sell in the seriously ridiculous numbers the Expedition and Explorer do then you are correct, they could well be more profitable per unit or even overall. However, this obviously does not apply to the Excursion which sells in modest numbers at best. Due to sheer volume the F-Series Super-Duty trucks almost certainly make much more money per unit than the Excursion does.

 

agreed