VFACTS Feb 2012 - Page 2

Smoke Pursuit · 05-03-2012, 02:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brazen

Personally I think the segment is massive enough to sustain Falcon ute and Ranger together side by side, they are different enough from each other to both be a useful vehicle in the range.- but I agree I think Ford will drop Falcon ute.

Not when you have to prove to Thailand an order book, thats the problem if they cannot take enough Rangers they will fall down on the list. Plus more and more tradies are moving to dual cabs (dual purpose), the days of buying a single cab ute are falling...

Brazen · 05-03-2012, 03:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DASH GT

Not when you have to prove to Thailand an order book, thats the problem if they cannot take enough Rangers they will fall down on the list. Plus more and more tradies are moving to dual cabs (dual purpose), the days of buying a single cab ute are falling...

Yes the dual cabs are very popular because they can do everything - I see them becoming a primary family car for many people, the more comfortable they get. I actually see a Territory-type dual cab being the next big thing in 5 or so years.

I wonder how many dual cab tradies will eventually move back to the single cab Aussies. Those 4wds suck at loading as they are so high, and the interiors eventually get wrecked and dirty and so stop being used as the second family car. I know of a couple of people who bought a dual cab so they could use it for work during the week then use it as a family car on the weekend - eventually the wife wont go near it with a 10 foot pole as they get too grotty.

Smoke Pursuit · 05-03-2012, 03:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brazen

Yes the dual cabs are very popular because they can do everything - I see them becoming a primary family car for many people, the more comfortable they get. I actually see a Territory-type dual cab being the next big thing in 5 or so years.

I wonder how many dual cab tradies will eventually move back to the single cab Aussies. Those 4wds suck at loading as they are so high, and the interiors eventually get wrecked and dirty and so stop being used as the second damily car. I know of a couple of people who bought a dual cab so they could use it for work during the week then use it as a family car on the weekend - eventually the wife wont go near it with a 10 foot pole as they get too grotty.

They still buy them, boys weekends away etc. Gotta remember most trades get all their supplies delivered on site these days, so there's no need to cart gear around and most tradies have their gear in trailers anyways.

I can't see any of my guys going back to Falcon utes instead of dual cabs, the dual cabs are just so much more useful and alot of them I know use the back seats to secure expensive equipment and tools.

csv8 · 05-03-2012, 03:07 PM

Wretched. on those figures, EcoLpi isn't selling???

MrZ · 05-03-2012, 03:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brazen

I know of a couple of people who bought a dual cab so they could use it for work during the week then use it as a family car on the weekend - eventually the wife wont go near it with a 10 foot pole as they get too grotty.

You should have seen the inside of the Ford Aerostar that I had to carpool in when I was a kid (while living in the US). Mothers don't care about grot. Another mother of a friend of mine had a big custom van (with lounge chairs, TV etc) and it was always filthy, had a big slobbering golden retreiver in there all the time, plus a baby... you get the picture.

FG_Frodza · 05-03-2012, 03:10 PM

I don't think it's too bad, better than last month, the recovery will take time..

Territory 1400
Falcon 1192
Ute 403
= 2995 locally made.

And total Ford sales don't look too bad, a little bit more marketing and strategy along with Ecoboost should really help.

Brazen · 05-03-2012, 03:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DASH GT

They still buy them, boys weekends away etc. Gotta remember most trades get all their supplies delivered on site these days, so there's no need to cart gear around and most tradies have their gear in trailers anyways.

I can't see any of my guys going back to Falcon utes instead of dual cabs, the dual cabs are just so much more useful and alot of them I know use the back seats to secure expensive equipment and tools.

And they look good too. One of the local farmers got a new base model bright red ranger dual cab with alloy tray. I have been eyeing it off, for some reason for me the new Ranger is the first dual cab where the base model is the best looking variant. The steelies and black trim seem to suit it (on this red one at least).

MrZ · 05-03-2012, 03:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brazen

And they look good too. One of the local farmers got a new base model bright red ranger dual cab with alloy tray. I have been eyeing it off, for some reason for me the new Ranger is the first dual cab where the base model is the best looking variant. The steelies and black trim seem to suit it (on this red one at least).

Bright red?! He must be nuts. Red is for sports cars and fire engines.

Brazen · 05-03-2012, 03:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Davez621

Bright red?! He must be nuts. Red is for sports cars and fire engines.

i think it looks fantastic - and I dont think pics do it justice

MrZ · 05-03-2012, 03:23 PM

On second thoughts I remember bright red being a popular colour on the Dodge Ram. They used the colour heavily in advertising when the new model came out in 1994 - probably to make it stand out from the rather conservative Ford and Chevys at the time.

FG_Frodza · 05-03-2012, 03:24 PM

You're dead right thats a good looking ute.

Homer · 05-03-2012, 04:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brazen

Focus competes with Corolla but you are right in that its suprising to see Camry where it is. Its becoming irrelevent - no wagon, no diesel - its like this Camry came straight from the late 90s. The one thing saving it are government and rental fleets.

You pretty much summed up the Falcon as well in that statement.
Focus sales are good, but well off the leaders in its segment.

Windsor342ci · 05-03-2012, 04:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brazen

i think it looks fantastic - and I dont think pics do it justice

image

God thats looks the goods! I love it!

jpd80 · 05-03-2012, 04:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wretched

By fuel type
[CODE] Passenger Private 2012 2011
Diesel 2,053 1,682
Hybrid 178 106
LPG 32 5
Petrol 23,830 24,109

Passenger Non-Private 2012 2011
Diesel 2,284 2,277
Electric 2 0
Hybrid 363 341
LPG 223 122
Petrol 17,054 16,786

[/CODE]

Across all brands, only 255 new LPG passenger vehicles were sold....
We know that Ford is making about 30 a day so there quite a few going to stock.

Territory is now being built one to one with Falcon, so that would be limiting Ford's
ability to deliver more on their order books, I have a feeling the mix could change
to perhaps three Territory to two Falcons in conjunction with four day weeks...

dimka100 · 05-03-2012, 04:21 PM

The Territory sold over 1600 units in its better months so yeah its not a flashy number ... also with all the back log the model had due to all the issues in January I was expecting to see a good spike in the numbers ...

Quote:

Originally Posted by phillyc

Pull your head in. Prado sold 1424 to be the number 1 selling SUV in the country and the Territory was 1400 units, just 24 sales behind. Yeah terrible. Not. It's bloody good actually.

Joe5619 · 05-03-2012, 04:24 PM

What a shocker!!! Falcon is died & Ford is doing NOTHING to try & help it.. Sad, but true me thinks. RIP Ford Falcon.

Mondeo is also not the answer at 500 sales it is even worse than Falcon. Even with a poplar Wagon, diesel & Ecoboost engines!!

Also, as someone else said, Territory at 1400 isn't too great IMO.. People keep going on about how Diesel territory has saved Territory, but has it really?? A 6-7 year old model sold around 1-200 per month, diesel territory has only really added 2-300 extra sales per month!! How much of that is because of a new model & how much is because of diesel? And yes, sell price is higher, which will help profit for sure, but that doesn’t help kept a factory alive that is struggling to build enough cars to stay open..

jpd80 · 05-03-2012, 04:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dimka100

The Territory sold over 1600 units in its better months so yeah its not a flashy number ... also with all the back log the model had due to all the issues in January I was expecting to see a good spike in the numbers ...

nah, not too many sales or forward orders on Falcon, Territory deliveries look like being held up by one to one build with Falcon.
March sees return of four day weeks, there's four that I know plus Labor day in Victoria

FreddyDUZ747 · 05-03-2012, 04:28 PM

Looks like its got some Great Wall in it.

jpd80 · 05-03-2012, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe5619

What a shocker!!! Falcon is died & Ford is doing NOTHING to try & help it.. Sad, but true me thinks. RIP Ford Falcon.

Mondeo is also not the answer at 500 sales it is even worse than Falcon. Even with a poplar Wagon, diesel & Ecoboost engines!!

Diesel Mondeo is basically unobtanium as the engine is shared across a lot of Ford Europe products,
I think you'll find a healthy portion of those sales are Ecoboost as FoE are holding onto as many diesels as they can...

Quote:

Also, as someone else said, Territory at 1400 isn't too great IMO.. People keep going on about how Diesel territory has saved Territory, but has it really?? A 6-7 year old model sold around 1-200 per month, diesel territory has only really added 2-300 extra sales per month!!

Transaction price, last of SYII 80% were RWd petrol at $36,990 drive away.
SZ is 75-80% diesel with +$43,000 retail price...that's the difference.

A combination of down balancing to 209/day, return of four day week and
Territory being built 1 to 1 with falcon are the chief reasons why we're not
seeing more Territory...heck, the segment leader, Prado only sold 24 units more.

Jeez you blokes are a tough crowd......

jpd80 · 05-03-2012, 04:36 PM

And don't forget that Focus also comes via Europe and suffers the same problem with diesel supply.
Ford has brilliant vehicles but none to sell, this is so frustrating for fans, dealers and buyers.

4VCLEVO · 05-03-2012, 04:52 PM

I can't belive that the ugly looking BT-50 out sold the Ranger, it must be the advertising that mazda are doing. I see the add for the BT-50 every night but can't remember the last time I saw a ranger add.

Smoke Pursuit · 05-03-2012, 04:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 4VCLEVO

I can't belive that the ugly looking BT-50 out sold the Ranger, it must be the advertising that mazda are doing. I see the add for the BT-50 every night but can't remember the last time I saw a ranger add.

Stock... Mazda has more stock then Ford!!! Heaps more!

Franco Cozzo · 05-03-2012, 04:56 PM

They had the same issue with the WS Fiesta when they first hit our market, in that they predicted 80% of sales would have been entry level CLs and mainly brought them over but the majority of people went for the top of the range Zetec, then they had supply issues getting them from Germany.

When it went to Thailand production, they fixed the issue with the non working aircon and created a few new ones like different wheels, odd sized tyre, low quality interior, pinging issues etc.

Nikked · 05-03-2012, 05:00 PM

Why are people saying the falcon is dead? they haven't dropped as much sales as holden, the Terri (on falcon platform) has gained numbers...

Ford made a profit last year on similar numbers.

Some poeple have no brains...

Dr Smith · 05-03-2012, 05:11 PM

And any Ford staff wanting a Terry as a lease car have to be quite "convincing" to get one so they are selling as much as they make atm.

Windsor220 · 05-03-2012, 05:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nikked

Why are people saying the falcon is dead?

Well percentage wise I would say they have lost the same. Falcon could never survive with just over 1000 sales a month. Atleast Commodore is getting near 3000 and even then GM have already confirmed its finished after VF.

Smoke Pursuit · 05-03-2012, 05:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Windsor220

Well percentage wise I would say they have lost the same. Falcon could never survive with just over 1000 sales a month. Atleast Commodore is getting near 3000 and even then GM have already confirmed its finished after VF.

Falcon can potentially continue on till 2016 at 1200 - 1500 units a month, but there's no cash flow for any future development or engineering costs!

Nikked · 05-03-2012, 05:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Windsor220

Well percentage wise I would say they have lost the same. Falcon could never survive with just over 1000 sales a month. Atleast Commodore is getting near 3000 and even then GM have already confirmed its finished after VF.

Falcon dropped 25%

Commodore dropped 34%

(both figures rough)

Ford have products to gain upon aswell, with the Ecoboost and Lpi sure to bring more people in, plus the sales lost through hail.

Smoke Pursuit · 05-03-2012, 05:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nikked

Falcon dropped 25%

Commodore dropped 34%

(both figures rough)

Ford have products to gain upon aswell, with the Ecoboost and Lpi sure to bring more people in, plus the sales lost through hail.

LPi has done f all for sales... Ask any dealer whos got 20 - 30 LPGs sitting up the backrow in the holding yard rusting away... Demand = poor.

**Polyal** · 05-03-2012, 05:42 PM

I still cant get over the "out of stock" issues, thats been happening since the first focus...do they learn nothing?