January 2006 new cars sales

[Falcon Freak]

Originally Posted by RATT

Demand for e-gas, as well as enquiries on how it will benifit customers has gone up.

A typical example is a customer of mine that usually buys 4cyl Hilux cab chassis utes, bought a Falcon XL C/C e-gas ute, and will replace all their Hilux's with e-gas XL utes. His first one was ordered in October, and arrived in early January (Dec/05 build).

That is good. I spoke to one of the Ford engineers recently who told me that Ford Australia is building almost 100 cars per day fitted with the E-gas engine. 12 months ago this figure was only approximately 20 per day.

With this increased demand, what is the lead time for ordering an E-gas equipped car? I heard that dealers don't usually hold these vehicles in stock so they are only built to order.

FF

[vztrt]

Originally Posted by csv8

Ford should offer dual fuel like Holden does. Holden had 400 sales a month planned for dual fuel dunnydores but sales are up and from March 1800 a month or to be built.
Cars Guide 01/02/2006

Monthly sales vary each month. I'd be more worried with the fact that sales were down 25% this time last year. The Territory is the only Australian manufactured vehicle that is actually makes a profit. The Falcon breaks even and I believe that the Commodore is losing money at the moment because of their heavy discounting.

Originally Posted by Falcon Freak

Focus - 1,333 (1,122)

FF

The Focus is getting better and better. This car is a money maker for Ford but the problem is they cant get enough of them in the country.

[The Stylist]

Originally Posted by vztrt

The Focus is getting better and better. This car is a money maker for Ford but the problem is they cant get enough of them in the country.

That problem should ease ever so slightly when Ford Australia takes NZ's allocation of SA sourced Focus's - thats not much, but it should help. NZ should be switching to the German built cars very soon.

[The Taipan]

vztrt - how about avalon, camry and 380 - ok obviously 380 is probably very red, but I would be surprised if camry was having problems?

[vztrt]

Originally Posted by The Taipan

vztrt - how about avalon, camry and 380 - ok obviously 380 is probably very red, but I would be surprised if camry was having problems?

If the Camry and the Avalon are making a profit than it's only due to the car being exported cause there is no way the car is making money in Australia, it dosn't sell enough units. I'd just want to know after the expense of design, building the car and than exporting the vehicles how much do Toyota make on each unit since the Aussie doller went up from 49c US to 75c US?

[Falcon Freak]

Originally Posted by vztrt

Monthly sales vary each month. I'd be more worried with the fact that sales were down 25% this time last year. The Territory is the only Australian manufactured vehicle that is actually makes a profit. The Falcon breaks even and I believe that the Commodore is losing money at the moment because of their heavy discounting.

'll be interested to see the the 2005 profit/loss figures for the local four manufacturers when they are revealed about April this year. Ford Australia's performance in recent years is as follows:

2004 - $185.6 million profit - article
2003 - $155 million profit - article
2002 - $20.4 million profit - article
2001 - $5.5 million loss - article
2000 - $16.1 million loss
1999 - $82.3 million profit - article
1998 - $58 million profit
1997 - $180 million profit - article

FF

[Dave_au]

Originally Posted by vztrt

If the Camry and the Avalon are making a profit than it's only due to the car being exported cause there is no way the car is making money in Australia, it dosn't sell enough units. I'd just want to know after the expense of design, building the car and than exporting the vehicles how much do Toyota make on each unit since the Aussie doller went up from 49c US to 75c US?

Toyota Australia isn't exporting directly to the US so the value of the $US vs $AUS isn't really of much significance. Plus the Camry is a true global car, and the biggest selling car in the US - costs relating to design and future development of the car are shared.

[Deadman]

Still no numbers on FPV vs HSV figures for Jan?

[T3ts50]

Spokeman from Mitsubishi have said they have expected the 380 to sell slow but are expecting to sell 1200 a month from April.

[cupic]

fair enough petrol prices are high

but safety and comfort still rules and corolla dont cut for me

Originally Posted by Falcon Freak

That is good. I spoke to one of the Ford engineers recently who told me that Ford Australia is building almost 100 cars per day fitted with the E-gas engine. 12 months ago this figure was only approximately 20 per day.

With this increased demand, what is the lead time for ordering an E-gas equipped car? I heard that dealers don't usually hold these vehicles in stock so they are only built to order.

FF

Certainly good. As is NRMA's decision to replace existing roadside assistance utes with e-gas Falcon XL utes (in NSW atleast).

Regarding Focus sales, when it was launched supply was a big issue hence the low volume compared to Corolla etc. Mazda had the same problem with the 3, but look at it now. Consistantly it sells over 2000 units a month. Focus has this potential as well and should do so so long as supply is there.

Fiesta is now a much better value car and it should also do better this year.

I just hope Falcon passenger/ commercial vehicles and Territory pick up again. Their decline is not just the result of fuel prices. 15yrs ago a Focus sized hatch/sedan was priced in the low $20's, while Falcon was generally mid $20's onwards so the gap was small, hence why Falcon sold well back then. Now the gap is atleast $10000 at the retail price level, and at the same time small cars have grown in size as well without being anymore expensive than 15 years ago, not to mention air cond. , airbags, CD player etc being standard as well.

[Falcon Freak]

Originally Posted by Deadman

Still no numbers on FPV vs HSV figures for Jan?

That also annoys me that neither company issue monthly sales numbers.

FF

[vztrt]

Originally Posted by Falcon Freak

'll be interested to see the the 2005 profit/loss figures for the local four manufacturers when they are revealed about April this year. Ford Australia's performance in recent years is as follows:

2004 - $185.6 million profit - article
2003 - $155 million profit - article
2002 - $20.4 million profit - article
2001 - $5.5 million loss - article
2000 - $16.1 million loss
1999 - $82.3 million profit - article
1998 - $58 million profit
1997 - $180 million profit - article

FF

Globally Ford made a profit of 2 billion dollars and the Asia Pacific region made a profit.

Originally Posted by Falcon Freak

That also annoys me that neither company issue monthly sales numbers.

FF

I dont know about HSV but technically FPV isn't a Ford company as 51% is owned by Prodrive.

[Falcon Freak]

The FCAI have revised the vfacts reports this year. One new interesting feature is fuel type category for passenger. SUV and light commercial vehicles (they don't specify fuel type for heavy commercial vehicles. As this segment only accounts for approximately 2% of all sales it shouldn't have a large influence on the overall figures).

For January 2006 the fuel types were as follows:

Petrol - 59,777 (87.5%)
Diesel - 7,736 (11.4%)
LPG - 671 (1.0%)
Hybrid - 100 (0.1%)

Total - 68,284

For January 2005 the numbers were as follows:

Petrol - 60,637 (89.1%)
Diesel - 6,862 (10.1%)
LPG - 376 (0.6%)
Hybrid - 128 (0.2%)

Total - 68,003

It can be seen that the majority of vehicles still use petrol engines. It can also be seen that there has been a small move away from petrol to other fuels with diesel absorbing the most of this movement. It will be interesting to track this during the year if crude oil prices remain high or continue to increase.

The only item which is not clear to me with this new feature is how do the FCAI classify duel fuel vehicles?

FF

[Redrum]

I think the large car segment of the Aussie car market just going to get worst unless price comes down.

[Dave_au]

I thought vfacts was alos going to include a breakdown between fleet and private sales this year per vehicle.

[Lagom]

Originally Posted by Dave_au

I thought vfacts was alos going to include a breakdown between fleet and private sales this year per vehicle.

They always have, it just depends what reports you get.

You can even look at what variants (eg. XR6s) are sold in certain post codes, break things down by certain features, gearboxes, etc.

[ltd]

Originally Posted by gmhdriver

How many people actually read these views? And most that to probably take them for a grain of salt anyway. I don't disagree with the BF being judged ahead of the VZ in some areas, I just think the difference is not as large as it is made out to be.



I seriously doubt that this has anything to do with it at all, it is more of a perception that anything else. For people that are after a large sedan with value for money, Holden and Ford are the first choice. I doubt that what you are implying even crosses most Commodore buyers minds..
I think what it comes down to is many satisfied Commodore owners coming back to buy another one when it's time to upgrade.

Nah, I think it might have more to do with the massive discounts Holden are offering at the moment. We might see a shift when the VE comes out as Holden won't be at the end of the platform cycle and will thus not be able to discount as much. Ford can't discount on the BF at the moment because they have to recoup their costs on the BF upgrade, as well as they are a new customer to ZF, and are unlikely to receive serious discounts. Perhaps on the BF2 when they make the ZF standard across more of the range ZF may give them a better discount based on volume, and allow a little wiggle room in pricing and or equipment.

Holden will be in the same position in terms of pricing as ford is now once the VE comes out; that is they won't have much room for discounts.

I should add that you can say what you like about Holden and Ford, but at the end of the day they are businesses and as such will pull out all the stops to sell the superseded model/s. Holden marketing are very clever, as they have tapped into the patriotic emotion and have also bombarded the media with advertising. Maybe ford should take a lesson here from the obvious professionals at marketing.

[vztrt]

Originally Posted by Falcon Freak

It can be seen that the majority of vehicles still use petrol engines. It can also be seen that there has been a small move away from petrol to other fuels with diesel absorbing the most of this movement. It will be interesting to track this during the year if crude oil prices remain high or continue to increase.

The only item which is not clear to me with this new feature is how do the FCAI classify duel fuel vehicles?

FF

Private
LPG 20 3 566.7%
Non-Private
LPG 433 286 51.4%

Petrol may still be the most common car but if you look at the variance of LPG cars being bought you can see why Ford has increased the amount of LPG cars they build.

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by T3ts50

Spokeman from Mitsubishi have said they have expected the 380 to sell slow but are expecting to sell 1200 a month from April.

Thats still only half of what they need to break even. Its not sustainable. I've heard the decision on their fate will be made around March/April.

[Falcon Freak]

Originally Posted by ltd

Perhaps on the BF2 when they make the ZF standard across more of the range ZF may give them a better discount based on volume, and allow a little wiggle room in pricing and or equipment.

The ZF 6 speed is too expensive to be fitted to the poverty pack models.

FF

[MeestaNob!]

Originally Posted by Falcon Freak

The ZF 6 speed is too expensive to be fitted to the poverty pack models.

FF

But not too expensive from 2007-8 I would bet...

[Falcon Freak]

Originally Posted by MeestaNob!

But not too expensive from 2007-8 I would bet...

How much are you willing to bet?

FF

[plee]

Originally Posted by vztrt

Monthly sales vary each month. I'd be more worried with the fact that sales were down 25% this time last year. The Territory is the only Australian manufactured vehicle that is actually makes a profit. The Falcon breaks even and I believe that the Commodore is losing money at the moment because of their heavy discounting.




The Focus is getting better and better. This car is a money maker for Ford but the problem is they cant get enough of them in the country.

I agree there, picked mine up on Saturday, traded in the Falcon, and couldn't be happier so far... thanks RATT :

[Deadman]

Originally Posted by MeestaNob!

But not too expensive from 2007-8 I would bet...

Originally Posted by Falcon Freak

How much are you willing to bet?

I rekon that the 6sp Auto will be standard across the entire range from 2008 with the 'Orion' model. I don't think it will happen in 2007 with the BF2.

[MeestaNob!]

Originally Posted by Falcon Freak

How much are you willing to bet?

FF

Any number that can be written down mate!