Not good.

http://media.ford.com/pdf/March07sales.pdf

On the bright side, F-Series outsold Silverado.

 

definately not good, they were down 9% from last year and march was there best month in 2006.

 

A couple of things jump out at me.

The Ranger needed a redesign yesterday, and
the Panther cars are selling better than ever.

Why discontinue retail CV sales in 2008?

Jim

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17930813/

ford, gm, chrysler reports sales down, toyota up 11.7%

 

Reading the first page on Red Star post. It looks like Ford sales are up and good to me.

Noticed this was US sales, I wonder how Global sales are doing?

 

Who's buying most of those CV's? Police Depts, and most PD's buy new cars around this time of the year. There is little money in fleet sales

Something else to consider inre to the CV. Body dies wear out. The current CV dates back to 1992, and some inner sheet metal to 1979! Ford prolly has decided to kill it rather than spend millions to buy new body stamping dies. It would take years of amortized costs to pay for the dies, jigs and fixtures. In addition, where would the money come from to make these changes? The CV is old and obsolete, sales are 1/3 what they were 10 years ago. Why spend what little money Ford has left on a dead horse?


The CV has had only one major styling change since being introduced in 1979. In 1988 there was a minor refreshening with new grille, quarter panels and lamps. In 1992, all the exterior sheet metal was changed, but the lower underbody structure and frame remained the same. The only major mechanical change in recent years was rack and pinion steering. Otherwise it's still a 1979 under the skin.


Notice the horrid lackluster sales of Jaguar...SIX BILLION DOLLARS and counting spent on a car that sells less than 2,000 units a month. Pitiful.

 

stupid how they included cars that aren't even made anymore into those percentages, ford isn't really down 10.3% for cars/trucks that are in production, they included the ford gt, the taurus... they're probably really only down like 4-5%

 

What about the worn-out dies for the Ranger? Should Ford do something about it, or do you suggest dropping every model once the dies wear out?

Jim

 

Fleet and trucks.
sales are going to be down.
I don't think we need to say the sky is falling every sales month.
The sales that matter now (edge, fusion, mkz, mkx) are picking up pace and setting record numbers for their nameplates.

 

I wasn't aware the dies were worn out on Rangers. As far as the CV's are concerned, maybe you can come up with a better scenario for the reason why Ford is ending production on a car that dates back to 1979, and has changed little since 1992.

 

Its posistion in the market place can no longer be justified?
i.e. a cheap rear wheel drive vehicle

 

They can keep their CV and Marquis. I'll just keep
driving my 76 Grand Marquis, 74 Montego, 74 Impala,
76 Maverick, and 79 T-Bird and 79 Lincoln for far
less money than any of the new ones cost. All of the
above cars only cost me a total of $2800 over five
years to buy, have not required any repairs at all, and
are super cheap to insure. I'll take the money new
vehicles cost and put it in my retirement accounts.
That's my better idea!!

 

Concerning the Panther (Crown Vic/ Grand Marquis) there was a pretty decent chassis makeover in '03.....hydroformed frame, aluminum K-member and the before mentioned rack & pinion steering. The rear suspension was also redone with a Watts linkage replacing the bind-prone control arms.

Trust me when I say the Panther chassis handled far better than a 4,000+ pound car had a right to.


I for one will miss it.....but it is a dinosaur.

 

i hope they arnt going to count on the ford flex to boost some numbers

 

The ancient CV has lasted this long only because when GM and MOPAR abandoned RWD, it was the only vehicle available that met the specifications for most police departments. It had a captive customer. However, over the years, some police departments changed their specifications and allowed FWD vehicles (enter Impala) and MOPAR introduced the RWD Charger. Now the CV has to compete on price and interior size alone. It is the slowest and poorest handling vehicle of the approved vehicles and doesn't compete very well.

Ford has no financial reason to replace the CV with another RWD platform. I read yesterday that GM has put their plans to make a RWD Impala, another Cadillac, etc. on hold due to expected changes in the fuel mileage standards. You just can't make a RWD car as efficient as a FWD car. My Towncar will get 25MPH on the highway but it replaced a Park Avenue that got 30.