Ford January sales
 

Ford did pretty good, but Lincoln and especially Mercury were horrible.

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2...01/076462.html

yikes...only 6,500 mustangs.

That's horrible! :bad:

Ford better get going that redesign and / or slap on some big rebates.

For those who will chime in and say "What do you expect, it's January, no one buys a Mustang in January", you better find another excuse, in Jan 2007, 9,064 Mustangs were sold, 2008 sales declined 28% over Jan 2007. Even worse was Jan 08 was a 42% decline over the 11,208 Mustangs sold in Jan 2006.

January 2008 is the lowest Mustang sales month since August & September 2004 when Ford had pretty much sold out the remaining 2004 Mustangs (after stopping production early) but was not yet shipping the new 2005 Mustang in any meaningful quantity.

With sales of other 2 door sporty cars like the 350Z, G coupe, RX-8, etc. in the toilet too, seems the sporty car market is on life support.

Ford's still in big trouble, and they may not be moving fast enough.

Their share of the domestic market has dropped from 18.2% in 2000 to 13.5% last year. Ford stock fell to US$6, a level not seen in 22 years, earlier last month.

The United States is in a not to well masked resection add in fuel prices, gas guzzler tax, and a presidential election year which historically suppresses auto sales....Plus the redesign slated for the 2010 model no wonder Stang sales are low!

Try another excuse.
1. Other than the GT-500, the Mustang does not have a gas guzzler tax.
2. Overall Ford January sales were down only 4%, so explain again why Mustang sales were down 28%
3. Among all manufacturers, Jan 08 auto sales were about the same as 07 Jan sales, so again why was the Mustang down 28% in a flat maket.
4. The updated Mustang is over a year away, too far out to have much effect on sales today.

I think it's just a variety of factors.

:lol:For one the gas guzzler tax is on more than the GT500, Go look at the sticker on the Roush! also market research shows that 32.5 % percent of Mustang sales are repeat sales, loyal customer following! repeat customers waiting for the 2010 retool.

Such as?

Roush aftermarket models are only a small % of total Mustang sales.

So you're saying the Mustang is not doing well because it can't attract enough new customers to keep sales up.

I thought the 08 GTs had a gas guzzler tax:dunno:

Yep! Its been that way for a long time untill the S197 buying frenzy! The S197 format enticed some old Stang fans to return to the fold! and the fact that Ford spends squat on advertising the the car! Honestly whens the last time you seen a Mustang ad on television compared to the rest of Fords models! other than What little hype 85 year old Carrol Shelby stimulates in few car mag articles. The youth market today doesn't relate to well to a man that had his 15 minutes of fame 25 years before they where born! and the mustang faithful who have carried the name moniker for Ford are to the age that trying to get in and out of a stang isn't as much fun as it use to be ......

They do! I just don't feel like arguing with a guy just looking for an argument .....:rofl2:

Well, we finally agree on something. I concur the Shelby thing is a farce. Obviously the Shelby connection is intended to appeal to baby boomers with lots of $$ to spend on a toy. But I don't see how the Shelby thing plays with anyone under 45 years old.

I also agree that Ford needs to do some more advertising and come up with some other angles to make the Mustang attractive to more of the under 40 crowd.

Hopefully running the pony cars in NASCAR's junior series will help.

Another big mistake Ford has made is thumbing it's nose at the Mustang faithful. A large number of Mustang loyalests have been clamoring for an affordable performance SE inbetween the GT and GT-500 with 350 - 400 HP (Shelby GT & Bullitt don't count). I imagine that many of these Mustang faithful are now taking a look at what the new Camaro & Challenger will have to offer.

:lol:

Yeah, I think you're right. I think there's factors causing this, too.

:jester:

Possible Factors: Declining sports coupe market, gas prices, the pressure for people to be more economical and efficient, recession, presidential election, new and upcoming competition, Ford's image and lagging sales, winter season, aging design. I don't think that anybody searching for an Achilles' heel is going to be able to find one. Individually these factors may have little or no impact, but combined they could have a significant one. It's just a bad time to be the Mustang right now. Just my opinion...

ok?:wacko:

This is relatively straight-forward and hardly a surprise. Still, every time the Mustang has a sales issue we hear about the decline of the coupe market. The ironic part here is that then as now the coupe market is doing exactly what it has done for quite some time and nothing has changed.

The S197 has been on the market for three and a half years now which is a long time for a two door model to go without so much as a refresh. People might point to other years which show happier monthly sales numbers at this point but the reality is that Ford isn't slapping the huge rebates on Mustangs now that they did back then which gives little incentive to the fence sitters looking for a screaming deal to come in for a car. As some will certainly point out rebates are there, but they aren't nearly so ridiculous as they were in the past.

Nothing too complex here. A product which, for the segment, is getting long in the tooth and rebates which are seriously more conservative than in years past combine to go a long way toward explaining the Mustang's sales slowdown.

I don't know how you can say this.
The 2 door sporty car market (coupe & vert) is hurting. Look back to year 2000. More Mustangs were sold and without rebates. Many models that are gone, Camaro, Firebird, Cougar, Celica. And there was not big rebates back in 2000. Toyota is talking about killing the Solara, GM has hinted it will kill the Monte Carlo, 350Z & G coupe sales are in the toilet.

I think that is the biggest thing there. It's late into the model. Most cars do that unless they get some sort of refresh.

And on the rebate side as well I had a friend looking at getting a mustang. We test drove a base model GT 5 speed 08 and a loaded GT 07 and couldn't get any rebates on them and the dealer just didn't seem too interested in selling him anything. He ended up buying an 07 Nissan Titan V8 ext cab for 17K instead.:doh: