Ford Says It Will Review Dealer Network
DETROIT, Jan 16, 2008; Poornima Gupta writing for Reuters reported that Ford Motor Co. said on Wednesday that it is planning to review its vast dealer network in North America again and slash its spending on building vehicle prototypes in half over three years.
Ford, in materials for a presentation to analysts in Detroit, also said it plans to decentralize its North American marketing and sales spending.
Ford has already cut more than a 120 Ford, Lincoln-Mercury dealers in the past couple of years.
The U.S. automaker had 4,300 U.S. dealers when it announced plans in 2006 to shrink the network. It did not set a specific target at the time.
Ford has lost nearly 1 percentage point of U.S. market share every year since 2000, and is slashing production capacity by closing over a dozen plants.
Last year the automaker's sales fell 12 percent and ended 2007 with a U.S. market share of 16 percent.
Luckily, my dealer is the biggest in the city. He has Ford, Lincoln and Mercury. Also sells Nissan. He has all of the specialty cars too, Saleen, Roush, a couple of Ford GT's a Bullitt edition Mustang as well as a few GT500 hard tops and convertables. Even has a couple of the Breast Cancer Pink Mustangs. He has a really sharp 08 Harley Davidson truck that I fell in love with on Saturday.
Hey LXMan1, I was at Bill Collins on Saturday too. Wish I had known you were there. The wife and I ordered a new Sable! We didn't get over to the truck showroom though.
Yeah? darn sorry I missed ya. I was getting by baby out of the bodyshop because someone had backed down my drivers side doors. I had an 08 Supercab for a week. It had 169 miles on it when I got it from Enterprise. It was a 4.6L with 3.55 gears. It was ok, but I like my 01 better. They did a great job repairing the doors, can't even tell they have been repaired.
I was really drooling over those GT500's in the showroom
I don't agree with the 15K "market adjustment" Dealer gouging!!!
I don't agree with the 15K "market adjustment" Dealer gouging!!!
I remember looking at the sticker on one of the limited edition T-birds. An extra 10k added by the dealer "just because we say so." I remember thinking it was a good thing they werent making too many, because there aren't enough morons willing to pay 10k above MSRP. I thought they were just a chic car anyway.
My KR was parked in front of the Lincoln/Mercury showroom. You may have noticed it sitting there, as you had to drive past it on your way in or out. We had an early lunch at the restaurant while we waited for our salesman to arrive. We were done and out of there around 2.
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