October Sales: Ford Motor Company - Down 10%

[BORG]

Originally Posted by FierySolstice

First off Lincoln should not be sharing anything with Ford or Mercury!! When will Ford learn?!? You think they would of from what Cadillac has been doing. You don't see a Caddy crossover like the Eclave/Acadia/Outlook. They need to have product distinct to them. The MKX is nice, but its just an over priced Ford Edge. The MKZ is just a Lincoln version of the Mazda6/Fusion/Milan. The Town Car is the same as the Crown Vic/Grand Marquis. Lincoln needs an overhaul badly. Hopefully the MKS will be better, but it is still based off the Volvo S80 platform which is also the Taurus/Sable. Lincoln needs some better designers to establish Lincoln as the great American luxury car that it once was otherwse it will die because the younger generations will go to caddy, bmw, audi, etc rather than just an upmarket Ford brand.

Caddillac doesn't share any platforms with Chevy do they? Except for the Escalade, which also shares interiors! Yet the Esclade is a substantially better product because of drivetrains, features, and general material and mechanical refinements. And then there is the XLR, which is dumbed down 'vette and is an AWFUL product

I'm so tired of this old refrain that Lincoln must do what Caddy is doing. I gurantee you that in 2 years, Lincoln will match Cadillac's sales and will have achieved this with much more careful investment and product alignment. Every product will have met sales goals, achieved excellent quality/safety rankings, and will be on tenure track of incremental improvements and platform successors. What is happening to the STS, SRX, and DTS again? Oh yeah, more delayed product re-alignments.

By it's very mission, Cadillac is chasing Germany. Lincoln has no such mission and draws no comparison, at least by the consumer who sees nothing like a Lincoln available (especially at these prices). Ultimately if you bring in your own customers, they are much happier owners.

[ford&holden]

Originally Posted by BrickTamland

Remember that its mediocrity will catch up to it at some point. Let's hope for Ford's sake an updated Edge debuts before sales fall off the deep end.

Huh? The edge keeps proving comments like yours, wrong...

[DamageInc]

Makes me proud to have worked on one of the main selling features of this vehicle - the Vista Roof! When I was helping launch it, there was a 5 week wait on the base roof and a 16 week wait on vehicles with the panoramic sunroof... makes me kinda proud!

[chevydlrmn]

ouch! It would be nice to see Ford be GM's top rival again. Very seldom are my prospects cross shopping to Ford, even in trucks. Maybe more with Malibu and Fusion, after driving both, shouldn't be much. Sorry Ford fans.

[Chevy Ryan]

Wasn't it about a year ago that Lincoln said it no longer competed with Cadillac, it wanted to be a "near-luxury" brand? Ford's decline in fleet sales isn't as rosy as they make it out to be. They say they dropped 12,000 this month, but the Taurus sold nearly 21,000 last October, all to fleets. Doesn't that mean their remaining models actually increased fleet sales by 8,000 to come up with a 12,000 unit decline?

[Geotpf]

Ford branded car sales were down "only" 32.1% this month. I say "only" because they were down 45.1% last month.

[Buick61]

Originally Posted by BORG

What is happening to the STS, SRX, and DTS again? Oh yeah, more delayed product re-alignments.

.

Well, the SRX got a nice refresh, and its sales are up. So.....no harm there.

[wpageabc]

Not suprised Ford is down 10%. The christian right has been pounding hard on them for the *** thing. The AFA will not relent till Ford stops supporting the *** thing. It is effecting thier sales. Negative in a big way!

[FierySolstice]

Lincoln just needs a complete overhaul. The Navigator used to be the best luxury SUV when it first came out and now it’s covered with chrome and looks like it has braces. The MKX is a restyled Ford Edge and not very good at that. The MKZ doesn't have the sportiness that the LS had and it’s based on the Mazada6. Shouldn't of Lincoln been giving new product/platform first? The Cadillac DTS might share a platform with the Lucerne, but it’s on its way out anyway. And at least Cadillac is doing major overhauls of its products in making it compete with the luxury automakers overseas, Lincoln just seems to be doing absolutely nothing. If they produce the MKR that would be a huge step in help them for recreating the brand. Cadillac started with the XLR and then expanded. Maybe they should start with the MKR or MKS and build from there. And yes they should be compared because both brands let the other luxury cars dominate the market, so both have an uphill climb to the top again. Remember, the same guy created both brands so they have been similar from the get go.

[E. Haskell]

Originally Posted by wpageabc

Not suprised Ford is down 10%. The christian right has been pounding hard on them for the *** thing. The AFA will not relent till Ford stops supporting the *** thing. It is effecting thier sales. Negative in a big way!

That may be true to some degree. I imagine, compared to imports, a greater proportion of domestic buyers are part of the Christian right. Thus, Ford alienated some of their bread and butter "buy American" customers. How much of an affect they've had - I have no idea.

[TiburonJT]

Originally Posted by wpageabc

Not suprised Ford is down 10%. The christian right has been pounding hard on them for the *** thing. The AFA will not relent till Ford stops supporting the *** thing. It is effecting thier sales. Negative in a big way!

I doubt AFA members are affecting sales very much, but I have no data (like you I assume) to support my conclusion. I would prefer all Americans, including ga y Americans, purchase domestic vehicles; therefore, I support Ford's efforts to attract ga y consumers to its products.