Ford Motor Co. said Wednesday it will shed most of its North American car lineup as part of broad plan to save money and make the company more competitive in a fast-changing marketplace.There was a time in the `90s when the Taurus was the best-selling car in the country, though that was skewed a little because Ford was selling them to rental companies, which Honda and Toyota weren't doing.
The changes include getting rid of all cars in the region during the next four years except for the Mustang sports car and a compact Focus crossover vehicle, CEO Jim Hackett said as the company released first-quarter earnings.
The decision, which Hackett said was due to declining demand and profitability, means Ford will no longer sell the Fusion midsize car, Taurus large car, CMax hybrid compact and Fiesta subcompact in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
I'll bet that Honda and Toyota will continue to be happy to sell cars to those who want them.
9 comments:
If gas rises to $4 a gallon, trucks will not sell. Hope Ford is reading the tea leaves correctly.
AC2 usn
Some bleeding-over of the Yemeni Civil War and we could very well see that.
Yea, this is NOT a well considered move. Ford is switching to production of the vehicles that produce more revenue, in the context of being sold for a higher profit. That will work in the short term, but the rising cost of new vehicles is already creating monstrosities like an 84 month (yep, 7 year) loan. With the longest standard warranty running 5/60,000, and the most common being 3/36,000, a 7 year loan is insane. Buyers will be upside down for at least 4 or 5 years, an facing maintaining an out of warranty vehicle for at least a year or two. Additionally, as the loan period extends, the savings per month get eaten by the increasing interest rates.
I wonder what happened to the institutional memory of the early and mid-70’s? While GM and Ford will have international designs to shift to the U.S. if a gas crisis hits, they won’t be Federalized quickly. The Asian makers will keep producing small and inexpensive cars, and the European brands will happily take the sedan market...getting back in after you quit is not as easy as you might think.
Most car companies don't make much money on sedans, as hey have to mark 'em down in order to sell them. Lots of makers sell tiny, cheap cars just to make the CAFE numbers.
Reading carefully, there won't sell SEDANS, only crossovers (and limited versions of those) and trucks (Trucks make something like 60% of ford's profit)....They are gonna only sell those items that are in demand.
Not sure how they will make CAFE standards that way though. Perhaps they think Trump will eliminate 'em?
You really have to take a hard look at your business model if 60% of your profits come from trucks and you are not anticipating fuel prices climbing to profit killing levels. Could it be they've thrown in the towel trying to compete with Honda, Toyota and the Korean sedans? It's very shortsighted but typical make money now mentality of US companies. I suspect GM is in the same situation. I see Ford going the way of other top US brands and will just be putting their oval on cars made by someone else.
In regards to the cost of trucks these days aren't most of those leased? I don't see the avg Joe financing $60k on a truck but I have underestimated the avg Joe before.
Cracks me up. Wasn't it "Henry Ford" that started all this "gotta have car" crap, to begin with?
Now they are quitting cars?
"What a world, what a world"
w3ski
it's not that people aren't buying cars.
it's that people can't afford the cars and Ford doesn't want to drop the prices on them.
No, they don't seem to want sedans:
https://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/car-technology/a20076013/ford-sedans-fusion-focus-canceled/
I have never understood the concept of the sedan
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