Ford sales plunge 30%

October sales for Ford are sharply lower as overall auto industry is expected to post worst month in 16 years.



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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Ford Motor reported another month of sharply lower sales Monday, kicking off a series of October reports that are expected to show the worst industrywide auto sales in 16 years.
Ford (F, Fortune 500) sales were down 30% from year earlier when its Volvo unit is included in the sales total. While that was a bit better than the 35% drop forecast by sales tracker Edmunds.com, it marked the 11th straight month that Ford's sales fell from year-earlier levels and was the worst month for Ford since January 1982.
The company reported a decline in sales for virtually every model it offers. The only two exceptions were the Lincoln Town Car and the Ford Flex, a newly-introduced crossover vehicle. For its core Ford, Lincoln and Mercury brands, sales of sports utility vehicles (SUVs) plunged 54% from a year ago and crossover sales were off 39%. Sales of trucks and vans declined 19% while sales of cars fell 27% from a year earlier.
Although gasoline prices eased during the month, tight credit and plunging consumer confidence kept potential buyers out of dealer showrooms.
Sales tracker Edmunds.com is forecasting that total U.S. auto sales will be down 29%. The remaining automakers will report their results later Monday.
Experts are worried that the weak sales and tight credit could cause the U.S. automakers to run out of cash as soon as 2009. While Ford has more cash on hand that its U.S. rivals, it is forecast to report a much larger third quarter loss than it did year ago when it releases results Friday.
General Motors (GM, Fortune 500) is forecast to post a 41% drop in sales while privately held Chrysler LLC is expected to post a 38% drop at its three brands.
Asian automakers are likely to post much lower sales as well: Toyota Motor (TM) sales are expected to be down 16% while Edmunds.com is predicting drops of 17% for Honda Motor (HMC) and 29% for Nissan (NSANY) from year-earlier levels.

Chrysler has reportedly held talks with GM as well as with the Nissan-Renault alliance about a possible merger with one of those automakers. But those talks are reportedly on hold. There has been talk that GM is seeking a loan from the Treasury Department in order to help finance a deal for Chrysler. First Published: November 3, 2008: 12:16 PM ET

 

Well, if we had the least drop of the Big 3 that's......something.....

 

GM Down 45%!

 

Not a good day in Motown folks

 

Toyota down 25.9%

 

Honda down 28.4%; Acura down 24.5%

 

everyone is down. its expects, Ford is in better shape then GM thats for sure.

 

And that's with employees pricing? OUCH.

 

When the solution, according to the GM guy is more vrdit for consumers, he is simpply showing his greed and GM inability to accept responsibility for poor long term planning and market/product development. also given that small car manufactureers - Honda, Nissan, Toyota - also posted drops, it's not the cars (well a little) it's the result of other market factors - like the sudden skyrocketing price of fuel (YES, I know it's fallen - but you were sure either last August!); the election (will there be big tax increases - no new cars for me!); will my job be safe?. Who can blame people for exercising caution?

I want Ford to survive. I enjoy my paid-for 05 Focus I use a daily driver (27 city; 35 highway) - I like the new '09 Focus at my dealers. Can't see spending $15K on a car that gets no increase in mileage that makes spending $15K make sense.

There has been overcapacity in the car market for years - maybe it's time for some of these folks to go away.

 

Just to point out the new focus does get better mileage then the old one, its getting the same mileage on the new rating system then your 05 did on the old system.

But still 15k wouldn't be worth 2 mpg but just wanted to point that out.

 

A huge problem that GM is facing right now is GMAC not financing any new car buyers with less that a 700 credit score. While it certainly makes sense to set the bar high, its causing a lot of potential buyers to go elsewhere, like Toyota for the 0% financing. Whats scary is that even though gas has gone down significantly since its peak in summer, because of all the economic turmoil going on, no body expects truck sales to pick up any. Most are expecting 2009 to be the "bottom." Personally Im wondering how long GM and Chrysler can keep this up.

On the other hand, of the Big 3, I think Ford will be the best off a couple years from now. I only hope they can sustain their turn around until it starts to take effect.

 

General Motors won't exist next year...not in the form it does today, anyway. Chrysler is already finished.

Ford has the best shot at survival of all three, but its on shaky ground, too, and the same forces impacting the other two are impacting on it. Don't know what will happen.

 

I don't see America deserting GM. I will say this though. Rick Wagoner needs to go. I saw him recently on an interview and he truly believes that GMs future rests firmly with the $40,000 Chevy VOLT. We've discussed this before. There are a ton of people who cannot afford a $40,000 vehicle, especially a cutting edge technology one that is unproven in day to day real world applications. Wagoner should be doing what Ford is which is to get as many high mileage vehicles from all corners of the company to market in America ASAP. They don't seem to be doing that at all. GM wasn't setting it on fire BEFORE the gas and economy issues blew up. And now, any flame they had has officially burned out. Instead, they continue to offer 650HP Corvettes for $100K, and the new 400HP Camaro for $35K etc. while working to bring the Volt to reality. I'm not saying stop working on the Volt, but you've got no other lower cost fuel sippers with the exception of the Aveo and Cobalt both of which could arguably be called ugly (not quite Prius ugly but ugly). The captain of the good ship GM is not turning the wheel. He seems to have the ship still on the same course which economically will cause it to fail. Buying Chrysler simply to gain access to their cash is like putting a tourniquette on a leg thats been blown clear off. It may help for 10 or 15 minutes, but after that...

 

My wife drives her BUTT F#$ING UGLY WHITE 2001 Prius to work everyday and get 47 mpg in town. That's the only thing the car is good for - the original version anyway. It's almost as ugly as your sister! It's good town/city car but terrible on the highway - not for poor mileage but terrible road manners, bad seats, and no fun to drive. Let's all hope Ford is smarted than GM!

 

I don't see how they're gonna make it. Consider the following analogy: GM is like a hospital-bound cancer patient who has continually managed to beat back the disease and survive, when suddenly, an earthquake hits and the roof collapses, puncturing one of GM's lungs and crushing both its legs. Assuming the patient can be dug out in time, can it really survive an onslaught of all these compounded, life-threatening problems?

 

Big 3 have to figure out how to cut production cost and union problems.

It won't do GM any good even if they sell 500,000 Cobalts per year if they lose money on each model sold.

 

And they haven't been able to figure that one out for the past 15 years.

GM isn't going to die, but it's going to be a fraction of its former self, IMO.

 

If they can ever get around to downsizing. GM has shown an amazingly stubborn resistance to cutting out duplicate products and it's helping kill them.

 

I'm not sure about Hollywood's cancer patient anology--but I think the observation about next year's GM won't be GM as we've know it now, sounds right. And it's not just about cars--GM's woes don't just end with the automotive business. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081105/bs_nm/us_gmac_6

GM still has a stake in GMAC LLC, (I'll bet they'd like to re-think holding on to that 49% share, right about now). The ReCap (Residential Capital) group is going under. If ReCap declares banruptcy, GMAC LLC bears the burden and will have less capital to offer auto loans for GM.