Posted on 10/02/2007 9:58:30 AM PDT by decimon
DETROIT - Ford Motor Co.'s U.S. sales plummeted 21 percent in September as the automaker saw a steep drop-off in car sales, according to results released Tuesday.
Ford's car sales dropped 39 percent compared with last September, while its truck sales were down 5 percent. The automaker said a 62 percent reduction in sales to rental car fleets partly was to blame. Ford has been trying to cut back on rental sales, which can hurt brand image and profits.
Other automakers also were expected to report lackluster sales for the month, as jittery consumers put off big-ticket purchases in reaction to the credit crunch, high gas prices and the troubled housing market. Wall Street analysts predicted overall sales would be down 4 percent for the month.
The Associated Press reports unadjusted figures, calculating the percentage change in the total number of vehicles sold in one month compared with the same month a year earlier. Some automakers report percentages adjusted for sales days. There were 25 sales days last month and 26 in September 2006.
The Ford Aerostar was a hybrid truck/car design, being that it was RWD and used a frame as part of its unibody. Most of its running gear was taken from the Ranger and Explorer trucks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Aerostar
The Windstar, however, is a Taurus made into a minivan.
! Beat me to it!
Is it really a boycott if you weren’t going to buy the product anyway? :P
The amazing thing is that the boycott is so effective without any mainstream news media publicity.
Likewise, no one is complaining. You’d think that some Ford customers would have to **suffer** for not purchasing a Ford, yet the market seems to be adequate for all who boycott Ford to have acceptable alternatives.
Moreover, Ford doesn’t seem to be winning back any customers who leave.
Frankly, the print news media has this same problem. Once you cancel your NY Times subscription, you don’t go back.
When I first saw it, though I was not in the market for a car (just went with a friend to look at cars) I was really impressed by the Five Hundred. I thought it was a pretty darn good looking car, and cheap. I never investigated it any further, but I’ve heard an amazing amount of negative comment about the car.
“There was a guy here on FR who said he was on the design team of your Windstar’s transmission. You may be happy to hear that I thoroughly flogged him verbally when he claimed that it should never have had any problems.”
Well done! And that designer’s arrogance/ignorance is a significant example of what’s wrong with American automakers.
My Windstar, an automatic, would at times just not go, as if it were in neutral. If you stopped at a light, and tried to go, once in a while the engine would rev and no go. Put it in park, drop back down to drive, away you go. The idiot dealer couldn’t fix it, I wrote a couple letters, then traded it off on a 2000 Grand Voyager. I still have that car.
I have no sympathy for Ford.
Most potential Ford buyers have no idea the boycott exists; it is purely Ford products and Ford customer service (or lack thereof) that is driving them away to other makes (no pun intended).
That’s true, but Ford is at such a tipping point that the balance is easily altered by even a few boycotters.
“When I first saw it, though I was not in the market for a car (just went with a friend to look at cars) I was really impressed by the Five Hundred. I thought it was a pretty darn good looking car, and cheap. I never investigated it any further, but I’ve heard an amazing amount of negative comment about the car.”
The reviews I saw of the car in the trade mags pretty much gave it a thumbs up for ride quality, interior quality, fit and finish etc...but panned it on it’s anemic 6-cylinder.
That’s what happens when accountants run design. With the name change to the Taurus, the car will get a much more potent engine...but it may be too late.
Ford not only caters to the homosexual agenda, they actively promote it by donating tons of money to homosexual organizations and events. They design print ads full of homosexual imagery. Check out boycottford.com for details.
Be careful what you say, some of their target market would like to do that!
Does an Explorer count as a truck, or car?
My 2000 Explorer died at 82K. The dealer offered me $500.
I bought a 2007 Honda and smile when I see this drop in sales. I’ll likely never own another car made by UAW unless they break/unionize Honda, or Toyota.
“Ford not only caters to the homosexual agenda, they actively promote it by donating tons of money to homosexual organizations and events. They design print ads full of homosexual imagery. Check out boycottford.com for details.”
I highly doubt that’s the reason for it’s sales troubles.
The first one I drove a couple of years ago *literally* scattered its transmission all over a freeway entrance ramp when I was test driving it. 28 miles on that tester, too.
The second one didn’t blow up, but it was slow, anemic, and didn’t handle very well. It really was just as bad as the Taurus it was replacing.
“I personally wouldn’t buy a Windstar. I’ve heard of more than one instance of an Aerostar with 300,000 plus miles on it however. They changed the design and it didn’t (doesn’t) work as well.”
Totally different vehicle. The Aerostar was a van. A rear wheel drive shrunken van. The Windstar was a poorly designed and built front wheel drive station wagon pretending to be a van. The Windstar was so bad that they slightly modified it and called it the Freestar, (to get away from the bad name made by the Windstar).
Explorers are trucks. Yours was built off the Ford Ranger pickup platform.
Let me guess - transmission failure?
The fleet returns compete directly with their new vehicle sales.
At this point, Ford would be affected by someone choosing to look at, not buy, just look at another brand rather than go o a Ford showroom.
Seen a Ford dealership lately? Ghost towns...
My take:
1. Ford = Dearborn-abad. Home to those wonderful ROP’ers.
2. Ford has a reputation for being anti-semitic.
I know #1 is true, and if #2 MIGHT be true, #1 is enough for me.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.