Vfacts February 2011

[RATT]

Originally Posted by Joe5619

I think my next comment has gone past unnoticed by all.. In a market that is down 1.6%, Ford was up 6.4%.. This means increased market share for the first time I can remember in many, many, many months!!

Also, Mondeo at 750 uints is great... Are we finally seening the Falcon Wagon buyers getting into the Wagon Mondeo??

Agreed Joe.

We need the positive in this as Falcon isn't the only car Ford sell. Ranger is outselling Colorado, Mondeo is firing, Fiesta is kicking goals. A fair amount of positives in my opinion.

[blk6t]

Heres a good scenario as to why the Falcon (not Ford) is failing, if you ask any general person in ther street what a G6 or G6E or F6 or what motor the new V8 is I can guranatee they will have no idea....and that is the problem!

No one knows what Ford has to offer because Ford decide to tell no one. Just today people at work were discussing the new VW ad with the car that reversed parked on its own...brilliant.

Ford arn't doing enough to advertise the Falcon and when you change badges like add the G series and drop Fairmont, you need to embed that positive change into peoples minds so when they see one on the street it "clicks" and they remember "there is that new Falcon G6".

[whales]

Originally Posted by The Snout

Epica 77 . That's a big 'no' from the public.

Falcon 1572 looks like a big no from the public too

[vztrt]

Commodore back on top as Toyota falters in February

Toyota loses market share as Holden and Mazda knock Corolla off its perch

3 March 2011

By HAITHAM RAZAGUI

HOLDEN’S Commodore reclaimed the title of Australia's best-selling car after a three-month hiatus in February, when the Australian new-vehicle market continued to be soft at least in terms of passenger car sales - which were down five per cent month-on-month while SUV sales increased 4.7 per cent and light trucks bounced back from a near-10 per cent dive in January.

The Commodore found 3829 new homes last month (down 9.5 per cent on January 2010 figures) while the Mazda3 attracted 3575 buyers (up 8.6 per cent), eclipsing the Toyota Corolla by almost 1000 units to steal its crown as most popular small car and take second place overall in February.

Overall, the normally unshakeable Toyota slipped 13.1 per cent to 14,604 sales, dropping two percentage points of market share. Of the top-ten manufacturers only Honda fared worse – it posted its second consecutive double-digit sales dip, down 16.7 per cent to 2585 units.

In addition to making Australia's second-best seller, Mazda had a good month, up 9.2 per cent to cling on to third place above Ford with 7644 sales and claiming top spot in both the light and small car segments.

Since losing its number three spot to Mazda last month, the Blue Oval has to be happy with 6.4 per cent growth and 7602 sales – up 1.0 per cent year-to-date. A spokesman for Ford Australia said the company was pleased to be in positive territory, with a second successive record month for its imported Fiesta (1160) and a record month for Mondeo (735).

Strikingly, however, Ford’s locally built models are the only ones in arrears for the Blue Oval brand, with Falcon down 37.5 per cent last month on 1572 units (-43.5% YTD), Falcon Ute down 22.4 per cent (-13.8% YTD) and Territory down 10.1 per cent (-5.7% YTD).

Ford again emphasised that it is suffering from a lack of LPG model variants, which make up around 20 per cent of Falcon sedan sales and almost 50 per cent of its ute volume.

There was no changes to the leaderboard rankings compared with last month, although Nissan's sales leapt 21.7 per cent to 5593, increasing its lead over Mitsubishi (4537) and threatening to catch up with Hyundai, which had its second best February result in history with 6607 sales.

The light car segment – defying expectations of significant growth – fell 5.5 per cent compared with the same time last year. Leader of the light cars under $25,000 was the Mazda2, up 37.5 per cent with 1572 sales, while king of the premium-light cars (over $25,000) was again Peugeot's 207, with 110 units representing a 120 per cent rise over February 2010's figure and a dominating 54.2 per cent market share.

Mazda built on this month's light car success in the popular and highly competitive small car arena, sales of which rose three per cent to 19,344. The Mazda3 comfortably conquered top spot, climbing 5.5 per cent to 3575 units. Although still down 9.3 per cent on February last year, the Hyundai i30 leapt out of its recent lull with 2654 sold, relegating Toyota's Corolla into third place by 54 units.

Toyota Australia senior executive director for sales and marketing David Buttner said: “We expected Corolla and Yaris sales in February to come off their recent highs following the end of extremely successful low-interest offers.”

Overall, a five per cent downturn in the passenger car market was offset by almost the same growth in SUV sales, accounting for 18,916 – almost a quarter – of the 80,896 vehicles sold last month.

Large and luxury SUVs led the growth charge, up 39.8 per cent and 15.7 per cent respectively, while compact SUVs increased by a modest 4.2 per cent. Medium SUVs were the only losers, dropping 2.3 per cent to 150 units.

The Subaru Forester regained the honour of compact SUV favourite, up 22 per cent to register 1221 sales – a February record. Subaru Australia managing director Nick Senior said he is “delighted with the response to our newer models, including the revised Forester range”.

Toyota confidently held onto top spot in the medium and large SUV charts with its Prado taking a 19.3 per cent slice of the medium SUV market represented by 1215 sales - up 1.8 per cent. Its 200 Series LandCruiser big brother continued its dictatorship of the large SUV market with a 71.8 per cent share thanks to its 850 sales (up 24.5 per cent).

The Japanese giant can also feel secure in its position as leader of the medium car segment with 1533 Australian-built Camrys sold - representing a third of the under $60,000 mid-size car market, despite a significant sales slide of 27.6 per cent.

Toyota's HiLux 4x2 (1075) and HiAce commuter bus (162) also topped their segments. “On-going customer demand for Toyota cars, SUVs and light-commercial vehicles is strong, with our order bank growing by 1000 units last month," said Mr Buttner.

The luxury SUV sector saw some impressive growth figures, with the Jeep Grand Cherokee up 563.6 per cent from just 22 units to 146, Mercedes-Benz GL-class up 280 per cent, Audi's Q7 up 205.2 per cent and Volvo XC60 up 116.7 per cent.

The overall market of 80,896 vehicles this month is down by a modest 1.6 per cent on February 2010 overall, but FCAI chief executive Andrew McKellar remains bullish as sales in Queensland begin to recover as consumers replace flood and cyclone-damaged vehicles.

“This is a solid result reflecting the strong underlying demand for new vehicles,” he said.

“Sales to private customers increased 4.1 per cent during February to total 39,776 units – outselling business and fleet purchases. This is an encouraging indicator of the market and reflects a strong level of economic confidence.”

February 2011 top ten makes:
Brand Sales Movement Share
Toyota 14,604 -13.1% 18.1%
Holden 10,314 -8.0% 12.7%
Mazda 7,644 +9.2% 9.4%
Ford 7,602 +6.4% 9.4%
Hyundai 6,607 -8.3% 8.2%
Nissan 5,593 +21.7% 6.9%
Mitsubishi 5,118 +1.8% 6.3%
Subaru 3,299 +0.6% 4.1%
Volkswagen 3,122 +4.1% 3.9%
Honda 2,585 -16.7% 3.2%

[Gobes32]

I find it bizarre that Honda are struggling. Their cars are all so good.

[vztrt]

Originally Posted by Gobes32

I find it bizarre that Honda are struggling. Their cars are all so good.

When I was sitting in them they were very plain (like Toyotas) there are nicer cars out there.

[The Snout]

Originally Posted by whales

Falcon 1572 looks like a big no from the public too

Stick a fork in it, she's done.

[Polyal]

Originally Posted by The Snout

Stick a fork in it, she's done.

How so?

What is the break even number? What are Fords financials like? What has Ford management told you that is so bleak?

With a statement like that surely you are privy to something we are not?

Its a bad month, most where down, it happens. You dont shut the doors based on one month of bad sales when surely management can predict that with lack of presence in the market that it was going to happen.

Things will get better, but in the mean time people preaching of failure will only hurt the cause.

[Resurrection]

Originally Posted by Polyal

How so?

What is the break even number? What are Fords financials like? What has Ford management told you that is so bleak?

With a statement like that surely you are privy to something we are not?

Its a bad month, most where down, it happens. You dont shut the doors based on one month of bad sales when surely management can predict that with lack of presence in the market that it was going to happen.

Things will get better, but in the mean time people preaching of failure will only hurt the cause.

Are you living in denial? How will Ford Australia be able to obtain approval from Dearborn to invest money in another Falcon when volumes are so low?

[The Snout]

Originally Posted by Polyal

With a statement like that surely you are privy to something we are not?

That something would be reality.

1100 sales in Jan, 1500 in Feb. Falcon is a faithful old dog suffering and slowly dying. Time to be kind, load up the shotty and blow the mother away.

LPG and Ecoboost is the last to late throw of the dice. Most seem to hope a miracle will happen and sales will dramatically shoot up. Me ? I think it's, at best, going to halt a further slide in sales and nothing more, marking time until 2015ish and Falcon's replacement.

[XR Martin]

How is the Aurion selling? bit sad to see the Camry selling as much as the Falcon.

[FordFan1]

Doesn't seem to be alot of interest in the incentives program out either! Last time Ford had the Friends and Family incentives, people on here were chomping at the bit to get a discounted Falcon. Now things are eerily silent.

[Bossxr8]

Lack of LPG is a disaster. 30% of Falcon sales gone virtually overnight, and its still at least 4 months away at a minimum.

[whales]

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

Lack of LPG is a disaster. 30% of Falcon sales gone virtually overnight, and its still at least 4 months away at a minimum.

Your right! this is typical of FoA always 18 months late.
Ford don't help by getting the motoring journalists against them by not feeding them any information, You only have to look at what Holden do with all their hair brained schemes and now it's an Electric Commodore what next a nuclear reactor model!!!.......The Glovers and his cronies of the motoring world love it and write up about it all the time but as usual nothing from Ford just a bit of dribble every now and then.

[Polyal]

Originally Posted by The Snout

That something would be reality.

1100 sales in Jan, 1500 in Feb. Falcon is a faithful old dog suffering and slowly dying. Time to be kind, load up the shotty and blow the mother away.

LPG and Ecoboost is the last to late throw of the dice. Most seem to hope a miracle will happen and sales will dramatically shoot up. Me ? I think it's, at best, going to halt a further slide in sales and nothing more, marking time until 2015ish and Falcon's replacement.

OK lets look at some facts.

Ford have a handful of products coming out by years end that are all based off the Falcon.

Would they really shut the doors now with all that work previously being done and just about to be signed off because of a couple of bad months in sales...no

In my working memory I can think if two times in the last 10 odd years where the Falcon and Ford manufacturing has been on the chopping block (late AU and during B series)..and look..they are still here.

FoA doesn't make alot of money for Ford with manufacturing...but they do else where. That doesn't mean they can just trundle along but they are less reliant on it. Obviously there is a bottom line with sales, but I dont know where it is and they certainly dont close on the basis of one month.

Also a point to remember is that there is a very high chance that when/if/whatever the falcon continues it will be off another platform or shared with other products....that should of happened a long time ago but better late than never.

Thats the only hope, and for consumers its a good thing, and if the platform can keep a localised body etc then I am sure FoA can find other ways of keeping their manufacturing employees busy....example being the Bosch Brake deal.

Chin up people, yeah ok it was a bad month, others didn't do well either, but there is enough ***** (lets be honest) floating about the media monkeys dont need more ammo.

IMO...if things bomb come december then id say we will just get a difrect replacement...if things are on the up guess what, the falcon will still change anyway..but I like option B alot better.

[The Snout]

Originally Posted by Polyal

OK lets look at some facts.

Sales not including ute.

2000 - 60460
2001 - 53534
2002 - 54629
2003 - 73220
2004 - 65384
2005 - 53080

2006 - 42390
2007 - 33941
2008 - 31936
2009 - 31023
2010 - 29516
2011 - at current rate 16500

We're far far below AU levels. I'll give Falcon credit for the slide in the past 3 years being a far less percentage compared to 2003 - 2007 . But it's still heading **** backwards.

[bobthebilda]

Could just be clever planning from Ford. If they eventually get Falcon sales down to a few hundred a month, then it wont matter to them if commodore picks up its remaining sales when they stop the Falcon.

I can think of alot of common suppliers between Falcon and Commodore. If Ford did stop manufacturing in Australia, I can assure you Holden would have to give serious thought to its dwindling supplier base. Cruze probably not too much of an issue, as its basically fully imported from Korea anyhow.

[Resurrection]

Originally Posted by Polyal

OK lets look at some facts.

Ford have a handful of products coming out by years end that are all based off the Falcon.

Way too late. The damage has been done.

Originally Posted by Polyal

Would they really shut the doors now with all that work previously being done and just about to be signed off because of a couple of bad months in sales...no

That didn't stop Mitsubishi pulling the plug on the 380 way before that model reached the end of it's life.

[Joe5619]

Not sure if this is the right spot for this... If E-gas is dead, why did I see an add in todays paper for e-gas ute?? If they are advertising it, they must have a fair few of them.. Where did this come from??

[prydey]

hows the honda accord selling? hows the aurion selling? pretty sure (and it gets said every time) the whole large car segment is smaller. it really is amusing when short sighted people keep comparing things to 10, or even 5 years ago.

it is a changing market. falcon improved by 400 units in feb. how is that a bad thing. it is also clearly evident that they are no longer the falcon car company, so falcon sales aren't propping up the company anymore.

Originally Posted by Polyal

What is the break even number? What are Fords financials like? What has Ford management told you that is so bleak? With a statement like that surely you are privy to something we are not?

i think this applies to most in this thread. how about all the experts share their source! come on, spill the beans. fill us all in on fords financial situation, specifically falcon.

actually, these threads every month are pretty good now that the jokes thread has been closed. great source of entertainment.

[stevz]

Originally Posted by Joe5619

Not sure if this is the right spot for this... If E-gas is dead, why did I see an add in todays paper for e-gas ute?? If they are advertising it, they must have a fair few of them.. Where did this come from??

Probably leftover old stock.

[Windsor220]

Originally Posted by Resurrection

That didn't stop Mitsubishi pulling the plug on the 380 way before that model reached the end of it's life.

Different situation.

The 380 plodded along for a couple of years with only a few variants(ES,LX,VRX and GT) and even they were very similar just a couple of options seperating them. Just one engine and trans. They had no major improvements planned.

Falcon has had millions spent on it for Ecoboost and Gas engines which havent even been released yet. Dont forget the supercharged V8 that was only just released.

[The Snout]

Originally Posted by prydey

it is a changing market. falcon improved by 400 units in feb. how is that a bad thing.

When 3 months earlier in November it sold 2368 units. You 400 unit improvement is a drop of something like 25% from where it was 3 months earlier.

2 months of under 2000 units sold, hell, they barely scraped over 1100 units in January. Hope Great Wall don't outsell it soon.

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by bobthebilda

Could just be clever planning from Ford. If they eventually get Falcon sales down to a few hundred a month, then it wont matter to them if commodore picks up its remaining sales when they stop the Falcon.

It's not like it would help them any, Holden has made losses every year since 2005,
Holden's extra sales haven't helped worth a damned, all those V8 sales and still losses.

Maybe Ford's restructuring to build at lower numbers actually saves them that much more..
perhaps your basic premise that Commodore manufacturing costs are the same as Falcon
are completely wrong...

[prydey]

Originally Posted by The Snout

When 3 months earlier in November it sold 2368 units. You 400 unit improvement is a drop of something like 25% from where it was 3 months earlier.

2 months of under 2000 units sold, hell, they barely scraped over 1100 units in January. Hope Great Wall don't outsell it soon.

big picture not really your strong point!

ford would be well aware that the sales aren't ideal, but they were also well aware that they would have to go through a bit of a slump due to poor timing with new products yet to come online.

in the meantime, most other models are all increasing sales, so overall, the ford motor company (not falcon motor company) actually increased by nearly 7% in feb. they can afford to carry the falcon for a little while. whilst most guess that falcon can't be viable at these low numbers, does anybody actually know for certain!! its all assumptions.


hands up all those whinging about falcon, who actually buys new falcons. if you don't, then why do you even care if falcon isn't selling?

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by prydey

big picture not really your strong point!

ford would be well aware that the sales aren't ideal, but they were also well aware that they would have to go through a bit of a slump due to poor timing with new products yet to come online.

in the meantime, most other models are all increasing sales, so overall, the ford motor company (not falcon motor company) actually increased by nearly 7% in feb. they can afford to carry the falcon for a little while. whilst most guess that falcon can't be viable at these low numbers, does anybody actually know for certain!! its all assumptions.


hands up all those whinging about falcon, who actually buys new falcons. if you don't, then why do you even care if falcon isn't selling?

Good post.
Ford's other products are moving to fill the drop in Falcon sales, could this be the turning point where
Ford Australia shows that it can actually sell other products without relying so heavily on Falcon or Territory?

Let's hope so, it will be interesting to see the effect of having Thai manufacturing
on our door step to improve the value and competitiveness of Fiesta and Focus and in
the long run I hope our region also gets Mondeo at either Thailand or preferably, Broadmeadows
would be excellent and improve FoA by around 1000/mth with Aussie built campaign...

With other models pulling their weight in the sales department, Falcon and Territory should
become the icing on the cake - not the essential make or break cars for Australian operations.

[russellw]

The graphical stats for this month are now uploaded in the Tech Portal.

Cheers
Russ

[BroadyFord]

To throw in my two cents:

I sometimes think; if some sort of disaster i.e. earthquake, fire etc were to bring down or destroy FoA's factory at Broadmeadows, would they even bother rebuilding it based on their current position or would it be an early get-out-of-jail-free-card for them to shut down??

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by BroadyFord

To throw in my two cents:

I sometimes think; if some sort of disaster i.e. earthquake, fire etc were to bring down or destroy FoA's factory at Broadmeadows, would they even bother rebuilding it based on their current position or would it be an early get-out-of-jail-free-card for them to shut down??

It only takes two months of bad sales and everyone is calling to stop the Falcon...
The reason Falcon sales are so low is because fleets traditionally buy a lot of Falcons this time of
the year and with nos station wagons or LPG available, there goes at least 1000 - 1500 sales.
The back story is that FoA now have to walk the fine lkine of profitability and managed costs,
by stretching out developments, it allows them to spread the costs and avoid red ink
but sometimes the public sees the drop in sales as cause for alarm.

I am surprised to see so many unsold cars being stacked up at Broadmeadows and
I thought the most of builds were customer orders, has Ford resumed dealer stock builds?

[The Snout]

Originally Posted by prydey

big picture not really your strong point!

I can provide those 10 years of annual sales figures in crayon if it makes it easier for you to follow. Hint, it isn't going up. Go take another look and report back.