Zastava_101

http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2011/10...ger-to-us.html

GM created quite a stir in the midsize truck market by recently announcing that it will sell a new Chevrolet Colorado in the U.S., recently designed and built in Thailand.
Oddly, no announcements have been made about a GMC sibling or exactly where in the U.S. the new truck will be built. Good guesses have been made about the GM plant in Wentzville, Mo., where the current GMC Savana and Chevy Express are being built, but no official statements have been made. With that said, some sources report there is a scheduled $380 million investment and retooling planned for the Missouri plant, according to the recent United Auto Workers contract agreements.
The announcement of an all-new vehicle destined for a segment that’s been shrinking for more than a decade has some other Detroit manufacturers scratching their heads. When asked whether Ford is considering a return to the segment with a new Ranger, Doug Scott, Ford’s chief truck marketing guru, said, “We have been and will likely keep looking at that segment, assessing whether it’s time to make that investment, but there are a lot of questions that have to get answered first.”
Scott went on to describe a little history. “Several years ago, we all the saw the economy doing things we didn’t like, and resources shrank. With the limited resources, we had to decide where to invest — keep pushing to support F-150 and Super Duty where the sales still were, or invest in the midsize market, hoping it would come back,” he said.
Clearly, Ford’s investment in revamping the entire powertrain lineup is helping to keep the company in the full-size pickup game, but Scott talked about other issues that still need to be settled to seriously consider the midsize-truck segment.



“The three key factors at play to make a truck in that segment attractive,” Scott says, “seem to be cost (the truck would need to be inexpensive to make and sell), fuel economy (there needs to be solid separation from the full-size choice), and it needs to have some ‘cool’ factor.”
Many PUTC readers will remember when this segment was selling almost 2 million vehicles per year, there were relatively few good-quality car choices that could meet these three criteria. Today, however, there are many more choices on the car side — VW Beetle, Chevy Spark, Chevy Cruze, Ford Focus, Nissan Versa, Honda Fit and Nissan Juke among them — with even more choices coming. Additionally, any pickups not made in the U.S. will get penalized with a "chicken tax" so simply importing a new Ranger from any of the three (Thailand, Argentina or South Africa) manufacturing facilities will not solve any problems.
(Editor's note: We've been told by some trade experts that there may be a special trade exemption with South Africa that could make it possible to import the new global Ranger without tax penalties, but the rules and regulations, as you might expect, are ridiculously complex and could create unneeded tensions if pursued.)
“Now that doesn’t mean there might not be an engine technology or manufacturing process that might not come along and change the game and reignite this segment, but for now we haven’t made any decisions,” Scott said.

Zastava_101

I still think Ford should've invested in bringing the global Ranger to the USA instead of Fiesta. It would sell better at the higher prices.

Moosetang

Eh, medium truck numbers mostly suck right now, and unlike Fiesta would need to be built in the US for US sale or suffer the wrath of the Chicken Tax.

Flagstang

the fiesta is better and will be the future of the usa car sales

2k7gtcs

The problem with medium trucks is that most people that have eve owned them realize the mileage sucks just as bad in one as it does in a full size. Why get 14mpg, no matter what the window sticker says, in a little truck when you can get the same in a big truck.

If they do it they need to put little turbodiesels in them that I don't think they currently have.

Zastava_101

The next generation Chevy Colorado might have a diesel option, since Chevy is already bringing a 2.0L diesel engine to the USA for the Cruze.

Zastava_101

We'll see.
Right now Fiesta is Ford's worst selling car, not counting the discontinued Crown Victoria.

Flagstang

thats because they cannot seem to get them to dealers! I see 5 to 1 focus/mustang to fiesta ratio on the dealers here in AZ

Zastava_101

There are issues with Focus' production, but not with Fiesta. Ford is building as many as customers want. There just aren't too many customers that want a premium hatch.

Flagstang

you should read more fiesta forums.

Zastava_101

Well that's the difference between forums and the real life. People on forums always say then want this, they want that, but when it comes to buying they pick something completely different.

For an example, according to forums, many people in the USA want a diesel station wagon. Yet, neither are selling.

Ford sold 57,000 Fiestas in the first nine months this year which is a pretty low number for such a cheap car.

2k7gtcs

I want a diesel Fiesta station wagon.

ShaneGT

I want a Mustang that runs on Hopes and Dreams!!!

Cusp

My 2001 Ranger with a cab high shell on the bed gets 19 city and 25 highway. My previous pickup, a 1996 Dakota, got 15 city. My truck before that, a 1977 Jeep Cherokee was like 13 on the highway. The Ranger does get better gas mileage than any other truck I have owned. And that is with 4.10s out back. Allthough the Mustang with an engine double the Rangers displacement gets better highway mpg. The little Ranger suits my truck needs nicely. Sad this countrys draconian laws made the Ranger unviable for continued production.

Rather B.Blown

A friend of mine back in the day had a diesel Escort station wagon. Hands down the slowest car I've ever driven. Took about 2 days @ wot to hit 60.

Zastava_101

Back in the early 1980s my dad had a Fiat 126. It was one of those cars that were so underpowered that in order to make it to the top of the hill you actually had to get the top speed before the hill. Otherwise, the car would overheat and die.
He had some slow cars after that (Zastava/Yugo Scala 101, Volkswagen Golf Mk 1), but none of them were as slow as the 126.

jsaylor

Ford's production estimates for the Fiesta have always been rather modest, and there is no glut of cars on lots so it is pretty obvious IMO that Ford is selling about as many Fiestas as they thought they would. That said, I don't think any car in that class at that price is going to sell much more than 100k units or so per year, and as alluded to above I don't think Ford ever expected to either. So long as the car makes money, and at an ATP of close to 20k that car has to be a miniature gold mine, I don't see the problem. GM was the worlds largest volume car maker when they went broke, volume isn't the key, profit is.

As for the global Ranger, I agree with 2k7gtcs on this one. Once they reach the size and equipment level of vehicles like the upcoming Colorado, global Ranger, and current Nissan Frontier fuel economy just never seems to actually be better in a mid size than it is in a full size model. I actually took a look at a Nissan Frontier the other day and, lo and behold, 22mpg highway was the rule of the day. I can get that in a 5.0L F-150, and similarly equipped the price isn't all that different either.

Near full size pricing and legit full size fuel economy puts these trucks in a situation where I just don't think a little added 'cool factor' is going to help. Particularly not when full size, domestic trucks are by and large seen as inherently cooler vehicles anyway. Throw in a diesel to make up the mileage difference as is often suggested and cost becomes an even bigger issue.

If GM doesn't bring the Trailblazer over to offset costs I strongly suspect that the Colorado platform is going to be a genuine swing and a miss scenario. Either GM will rebate these trucks to death and lose money on every one that they build, they will take an overly aggressive pricing stance from the outset and make no money even without rebates, they won't sell enough to make a difference, or any possible combination of the three. Nissan and Toyota get away with the fuel economy and too close for comfort price tags on their mid sizers because they don't have a serious full size presence to threaten internal cannibalization. And on that same note, I would point out, that no maker outside of Ford seems to have found any meaningful level of sales success in both full size and mid size/compact truck market simultaneously and it is worth mentioning here that the Ranger is an obvious budget offering that is older and more basic than anything else on the market.

Zastava_101

So why spend so much time and money on bringing it to the USA when market for it is barely existing? Its a cheap car, I don't think Ford makes much money on it (if any).
Why not spend that time and money on something with the higher price that will sell much better and therefore make more profit for Ford?
Why not a minivan? Chrysler sold over 72,000 Town & Countrys in the first 10 months this year and Dodge added another 85,000 Caravans. Honda sold 76,000 Odysseys.
So there is still a market for it and we all know Ford can make a better vehicle than Chrysler.

jsaylor

I'm not convinced that they spent much time or money on Americanizing the Fiesta. Very little was changed in the transition and my guess says that the need for so few tweaks was part of the argument that convinced Ford to bring the car over.

As for making money, I would be very surprised if Ford isn't making money hand over fist on the majority of Fiestas sold. The most popular Fiesta models thus far seem to be the better equipped versions which edge into 20k territory, and I personally find it very hard to believe that this is anything but a very profitable car at those prices even with leather and a sunroof.

Fundmentally I don't disagree on the minivan, but I'm betting Ford is looking at that market as a from scratch scenario since the Galaxy really is very different from what the American market is accustomed to.

Zastava_101

I was thinking more like building a minivan based on Flex, since Flex is not selling.