http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2...01/153569.html

 

Only 5,337 Fusions? And Ford is planing to sell 160,000 of them each year? I expected a lot bigger number for Fusion.

 

RE: Fusions . .

Posted by Dave9991 on http://www.blueovalforums.com/index.php?showtopic=205

Seek and one shall receive.

Production of Triplets in November
Fusion- 11,502
Milan- 3,429
Zephyr- 2,438

Production of Triplets for the Year
Fusion- 31,478
Milan- 9,325
Zephyr- 6,931

Sales of Triplets as of December 1st.
Fusion- 9,415
Milan- 3,210
Zephyr- 2,856

Sold in November
Fusion- 5,337
Milan- 1,874
Zephyr- 1,652

Unsold as of December 1st (Produced-Sold)
Fusion- 22,063
Milan- 6,115
Zephyr- 4,075

Day Supply
Fusion- 64 day supply (Ideal within tolerance)
Milan- 54 day supply (Shortage)
Zephyr- 44 day supply (Shortage)

Ideal supply- 60 day supply

So the Milan/Zephyr are actually selling above average. With the addition of the third shift we'll probably see an increase in Zephyr and Milan production, and this may be one of the factors hampering Lincoln/Mercurys growth. Once we get out of this slowdown in automotive sales we may see a rise in sales along with the initial growth. I expect the Trio to do quite well. It seems the Zephyr/Milan are stealing quite a few sales from the Grand Marquis, town car, and LS. I wonder how many are actually conquest buyers. Good to see Mercury/Lincoln doing well, I think this new differentiation strategty is starting to show new life in an old brand. My long term perspective is cautiously optimistic. They really should have the Focus and Escape redesigned for next year along with the Edge, Expedition, Sport Trac, SVT models, Meta One, S80, Freelander, C30, and CX-7.

My 6 month sales cap targets- 150k combined sales

I think next month well sell growth of the Milan/Zephyr in the 10-30% region over November's sales. Fusion 10-20%.

Optimistic Sales Projections for December
Fusion- 6,300 units
Milan- 2,436 units
Zephyr- 2,147 units
Total- 10,833 units
x12- 130,603 units

Current yearly sales rate- 106,356
Octobers yearly sales rate- 79,416
Growth in yearly sales rate Nov. vs. Oct. 2005- 26,940 units

If growth stays at current rate, yearly sales rate for December - 133,296

 

ya, that's a good breakdown... shows that sales of a car can take time to pick up, and sales of the triplets show a deccent growth. Just look at the 500. Sales of that one in november increased by 40% over last november. Not too shabby. Also happy to see the combined 500, freestyle sales are up to 170000 for the YTD. They're doing better than i thought... definitely picking up steam. This is kinda what i thought would happen. The 300 was a big bang in terms of sales, but i doubt they've grown much over last year, if anything i woulda thought sales would go down. To me the 300 is burning bright but will burn out faster, in terms of styling... it'll grow old quickly. Whereas the 500 has a decent but bland styling that i think will appeal to people for a longer time.

...it just needs two things....

 

Since we are on the topic . .

Chrysler November sales from . . . . http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2...01/153776.html

 

Cool, thanks Jason... i really was curious but also a bit lazy to look that up.

So the 300's November sales increased by 9% to 12600 (what's DR% change??), while the 500 increased by 40% to 7400. So it looks like the 500 is still really building up steam while the 300 is getting close to a plateau. Although, you gotta remember that for the 300, November was already pretty long after the car went on sale, while the 500 had just been introduced shortly before last november.

 

Production is still ramping up.

 

You're right Mark. And Ford rated that optimistically it would sell about 16,000 Fusion units by the end of the year. There are pretty much on chart to do that or get very close.

 

I think this is of significance. The focus is the fourth best seller they've got, after the F-series, the explorer, and the taurus (does that even count). THe focus' sales have gone down 9%. Now of course the explorer accounts for 220,000 sales this year so far, while the focus only 173,000, and its gone down by 29% over last year... but that's part of an industry wide trend. Ford's redone the explorer now, we'll see if that helps, now they should get on that small car thing. Its only gonna get worse from here if they don't make the focus an attractive car (in terms of styling and everything else).

 

According to what I've read the Focus is scheduled for a major update in '07 as an '08. But no one knows outside the company if it's a C1 or sort of a C1.5. Again just going by what I've read . .

 

Ford does like to keep things pretty wrapped up until it gets closer to release time.