Sales numbers for Ford Motor Company

[V10_P70]

Look at the numbers for the Panther platform cars:

http://media.ford.com/pdf/dec2002sales.pdf

The numbers are off for the Crown Vic (down 16.3%) and Grand Marguis (down 28.4%). Things are looking not to good for these cars.

More problems with the Panther cars, N.Y. troopers told to stop patrols in Crown Victorias:

http://www.auto.com/industry/vic3_20030103.htm

:depress: :depress:

Look at the GM sales surge 36% in December:

www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2003-01-03-december-sales_x.htm

[RF Overlord]

Hmm...when I first looked at these numbers in SergntMac's post, I was only looking at the Dec2002 versus Dec2001 numbers and the GM is up, but YTD, V10's right... way down...and I didn't even look at the Vic at all...it's down in both categories... (boo, hiss)

Maybe we should start a chain letter...I'll get 5 of my friends to buy Marauders, then they each get 5 more friends... D'OH!

[V10_P70]

Look at these numbers for production:

------- 2000 2001 2002
CV---- 92,047 95,261 79,716
GM---- 122,572 112,034 80,271
--------- --------- ---------
Total-- 214,619 207,295 159,987

This is a loss of 54,632 cars in two years.

:help:

[RCSignals]

One of the things that throws Fords 2002 YTD comparison over 2001 are the unusual record sales of OCT and NOV 2001.
The whole Fuel tank item hasn't helped, plus there have been St Thomas plant slowdowns or short line closures due to shortage of parts, such as transmissions. Truck production gets priority.

Also, 2002 production ended in January '02. Due to the '03 changes, 2003 production didn't resume until sometime in April '02. There was at least 3 months of the year of no production

Then of course there is the issue of Ford advertising. ford has dome a poor job of advertising the Marauder, simply doesn't advertise the Crown Victoria, and rarely if ever advertises the Grand Marquis.

It's too bad, the Crown Victoria and brothers are amongst the safest cars on the road, and they are great value for the $

[RF Overlord]

Originally posted by RCSignals
It's too bad, the Crown Victoria and brothers are amongst the safest cars on the road, and they are great value for the $

Well, there you have it...

1. "among the safest..." No one buys a car because it's safe...else why on earth do so many people buy SUVs that roll over at the drop of a hat?

2. "...great value for the $" translation: low profit margin for Ford, so they don't push them. In another post, it was said that GM stopped making the Impala SS so they could convert the plant to build more "...highly profitable SUVs and P/U trucks"...

[RCSignals]

Actually, Ford claims they make good profit from the Crown Victoria and Grand Marquis, which is why they still build them

[RCSignals]

Actually December Sales of the Grand Marquis were up 29.1%. (and that figure includes Marauders)

YTD sasles were down. they aren't the same thing

GMs 36% was for December sales of it's entire line of cars and trucks.

[MAD-3R]

Also with the economic slowdown, Cab companys and police departments havn't been replacing vehicals as they had been. I think 2003 will show a nice over all increase in panther platform cars over 2002. The new front-end suspention has alot of local Law Dawgs exciteded