Great News! Makes the $80K Expedition Platinum look like a steal. ;^)


Ford is selling the high-end Lincoln Navigator so fast it is having trouble keeping up with demand.


The second-largest U.S. automaker has only been rolling out the 2018 Navigator to dealerships since the end of November, but Ford is already straining to produce enough vehicles, executives said on a conference call Thursday.
Navigator sales were up 97.5 percent over the same month in 2017, even though Ford's overall sales dropped 6.6 percent, and total Lincoln SUV sales fell almost 20 percent.
"We could have sold a lot more in January if we had had them," said Mark LaNeve, vice president of U.S. marketing, sales and service.
Furthermore, 84 percent of Lincoln buyers opted for the two most expensive trim levels, the Reserve and the Black Label. Those packages can bring the price of the SUV up to roughly $90,000 and $100,000, respectively.


The success of the car is largely due to the updated design, Kelley Blue Book analyst Rebecca Lindland told CNBC. This is the first redesign Ford has done on the vehicle in a decade.
Among other things, the newer version has a more spacious interior and comes with highly adjustable seats that offer heating, cooling and massage.
"The previous Navigator was fine, but it was nothing like this," she said. "This is a really gorgeous truck."




The updated version is so popular, the Navigator may have lured buyers from Cadillac, which makes the similar Escalade and Escalade ESV vehicles, Lindland said.
"Cadillac had owned that spot for years," Lindand said, "and now Ford has come in and is a fierce competitor."
Cadillac was not immediately available for comment.
Escalade sales were still up 15 percent in January over 2017, but Escalade ESV sales were down roughly 14 percent, said General Motors in its monthly sales release on Thursday. The Escalade did gain more than 2 points of retail segment share and average transaction prices rose by about $2,300.
High-end SUV sales such as this are a good sign for Ford. The company wants to funnel money from profitable SUV and truck sales into new mobility businesses, such as autonomous vehicles. In addition, Ford is attempting to improve its financial fitness, bottom line lately has been impacted in part by rising commodity prices.




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But Ford stock is dropping like a rock!
Hopefully Ford will get costs back under control.

 

In 2017, Caddy sold about 40k Escalades and Lincoln sold 10k Navigators, so there is definitely some catching up to do. It would take a 300% increase to meet Escalade sales.

But the Navigator demand certainly looks promising and we'll see how many they sell when they ramp up production and the "first on the block" appeal dies down. Definitely a nice SUV and I'd like the 400-way power seats a lot

 

January 'Gator sales were less than 1300 units. So about 15,000 units per year.

That's not exactly stacking them up like cord wood.

Percentage increase looks good mostly because Ford sold so few 'Gators in January 2017.

For comparison, FCA sold just under 13,000 Fiat 500s in the US in 2017.

Expedition sales are actually down 15% in January 2018 as compared to January 2017 at 3439 units versus 4064 units.

Chevy Tahoe sales were up 21+% in January 2018 versus 2017 at 7147 units versus 5881 units.

And the Caddy Escalade still outsold Lincoln handily with 2241 units.

Throw in another 4300 GMC units and GM is still spanking Ford's behind.

These results were despite the fact that the GM truck is an old design that was not particularly well-reviewed even when new several years ago.

The local GM plant is running flat out making these SUVs, shutting down only for a few hours for maintenance on Sundays. So GM execs are not exactly wetting their pants.

Let's not pop the champagne corks just yet.

 

Ford is just now getting into the baby CUV craze. Only missed that by about 5 years.

Meanwhile, GM has been selling over 100,000 Colorados and Canyons a year for 4+ years. New Ranger will not arrive for another year. 2019! My god!

4-5 years to bring a competitive product to market? When both the EcoSport and the Ranger have already been on sale for years in other countries? Are you kidding me?

You cannot keep missing boats and expect to get anywhere.

Let's face it, GM's product planners hit home runs with the Buick Encore and Colorado and Canyon and Ford planners were DOA.

 

The whole Lincoln BRAND sold 6410 vehicles in January...which is less than the number of Tahoes sold alone. This is depressing and makes me wonder if Ford should have killed Lincoln and kept Mercury. I can't see how Mercury was *that* expensive to keep around...mostly Fords with a few different body panels.

I would be nervous about buying a Lincoln right now because I don't see their tiny sales sustaining many self-standing dealers. The local Lincoln dealer seems to be surviving by selling a few CPO Lincoln vehicles and a number of used Ford cars and SUV's... I dropped in the other week and although I like the MKX a lot, a loaded Edge Titanium is $10k less on the sticker, with an extra $3k of rebates on top of that.

 

And what happens when gas prices go up? SUV sales will fall like a hot rock. And then people will want little cars which are selling poorly......

 

Midsize, compact, and subcontact SUV's are getting great gas mileage these days; people are not gonna move from large SUV's to Focuses as they might have done in 2008...

As much as people may complain about gas mileage regulations, they will help the US manufacturers from tanking as badly as they did when we had the last gas price crisis. A new 4 cylinder Ecoboost Edge or Explorer gets better mpg than a 4 cylinder Escape did in 2008--with 1.5 times the weight and 1.5-2x the horsepower(!!)

And even big SUV's are getting 20+ mpg on the road, where in 2008 they were getting 12-15... If a prolonged gas crisis approaches, hybrid technology could be pretty quickly rolled into trucks and SUV's.

Fuel prices are not the biggest cost in vehicle ownership. People who shell out 60-100k for an Expedition or Navigator have far more to lose in depreciation than they do in extra fuel prices...even at $4-5 per gallon. Do the math...if you lose $40k on an Expy or Navigator in 100k miles, that is 40 cents per mile. With $5 per gallon gas and 15 mpg, gas cost is 33 cents per mile.

George

 

My question is this;, people who are looking to buy a Navi and are being turned away due to lack of inventory, are they turning to a Platinum Expy or moving to another upscale SUV builder who can provide what the want?

By judging on my local dealer's inventory, it looks like there aren't many 2018 Expy's to choose from either.

Ford has always been too laser focused on it's truck division to pay enough attention to it's other models.

 

Embarrassing situation for Ford, these trucks should have been ready and with enough available stock by December at least. I have an expiring lease next month for a Navigation L and not sure what to do. The local dealer doesn't have any Navis available and it's probably gonna take him a couple more months to get some stock on the floor. No way to test drive or see the car in the showroom. Not many options available for Ford either. Seriously considering buying the leased vehicle and hold it for a year until Ford gets its act together.

Regarding other providers, test drove an Escalade a couple of years ago and the driving experience was horrible (vibration, noise), wouldn't consider that option anymore.

 

I hope everyone gets their trucks timely. I have not leased, but is it possible to negotiate with a dealer to extend a lease by a few months or a year? Seems like dealers are working hard to get and keep customers.

Couple articles in the Detroit Free Press this morning...one on Ford's stepping up production (and noting that a LOT of the increased sales are buyers coming from the competition):

https://www.freep.com/story/money/ca...4-D60F41A7D832

And a second showing the gigantic robot (not totally relevant to production numbers but a fun inside shot of the factory process). Maybe that's your future truck naked on the production line

https://www.freep.com/videos/money/c...ive/110331010/

George

 

The one and only thing that kind of baffles me is that Ford hasn't taken the incredibly popular Explorer and made a Lincoln offering with it.

 

I believe the next-gen Explorer (2019 or 2020) will be based on RWD and there will be an Aviator version once again. (Someone on FTE mentioned RWD and I was not even aware.) They have the MKC and MKX, both which are very nice versions of the Escape and Edge respectively...but way more expensive. I think the MKC is their best seller.

(Buick's best seller is the Korean Encore, which I find disgusting, and they have a nice Envision SUV which is Chinese--even more disgusting to me. And neither is really cheap.)

Ford should do SOMETHING to keep Lincoln dealers afloat and a nice Aviator would help that...Lincoln's new car sales volume is pathetic right now; most Detroit area Lincoln dealers are sister dealerships to 1 or 2 Ford stores and I bet the Lincoln dealers are losing money...

EDIT--DOH!!! I completely forgot about the MKT which, like the Ford Flex, is on the same chassis as the Explorer.....what a dorky and unpopular vehicle that is--and totally forgettable. So Lincoln *does* have a version--a bad one--of the Explorer.

Also, the new chassis is adaptable to RWD, FWD, and AWD, so the new Explorer is not guaranteed to be RWD based but it would be helpful for world-class Euro-style handling (like the BMW X5, etc.)

 

They did, it's called the Platinum model.

 

That is close to true....it would cost money to redo the body panels and would be difficult to justify a Lincoln price. I was looking at the MKX recently and it was hard to make a good case for it over an Edge Titanium--I did find the Lincoln more attractive, but it was like $10-13k more money after considering the better rebates on the Edge.

The Platinum and Titanium Ford models are filling in the gap where Mercury used to be, leaving Lincoln with only the highest end stuff, that more people seem to lease instead of buying. Where Lincolns get more attractive to me is Certified Pre-Owned 2015-16 models...