The love affair is over

[Pervert]

From the BBC website---looks like the US/car romance may be over

Ford 'to make fewer big vehicles'

Ford will make 90,000 fewer vehicles this year
Car giant Ford has said it will cut its production of large trucks and large sports utility vehicles (SUVs) in favour of more fuel efficient models.

It will also delay the introduction of its new pick-up truck by two months.

The US economic slowdown has reduced sales and soaring fuel prices have put consumers off buying bigger vehicles.

Ford said it will make a loss this year and predicted that the worsening US economic situation would make it difficult for it to break even in 2009.

We view the move to smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles as permanent

Ford president and chief executive Alan Mulally

"Demand for large trucks and SUVs [is] at one of the lowest levels in decades," said Ford president and chief executive Alan Mulally.

Ford's sales were down 16.8% last month compared to May 2007, according to industry analysts Autodata.

The company's new F-150 pick-up truck will now go on sale two months later than anticipated in the autumn of next year.

Ford said it expected to produce 90,000 fewer vehicles in the second half of 2008.

Production in the third quarter will now be 475,000 vehicles, 25% fewer than during the same period in 2007, Ford said.

'Responding to demand'

The company will increase the production of smaller vehicles including the Ford Focus sedan, the Ford Escape and the Mercury Mariner.

"We view the move to smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles as permanent, and we are responding to customer demand," Mr Mulally said in a statement.

US VEHICLE SALES MAY 2008
Ford: down 15.8%
General Motors: down 27.5%
Chrysler: down 25.4%
Honda: up 15.6%
Nissan: up 8.4%
Source: Autodata

Most of the production cuts will be achieved by extending the summer shut-downs, reducing production line speeds and cutting the number of shifts at some plants. Shifts will be added at factories making the smaller vehicles.

Ford has said it wants to reduce its workforce by 12% and further cuts cannot be ruled out. The company will announce further details of its restructuring plan when it announces its next set of financial results in July.

As a result of Ford's announcement, Standard and Poor's said it was reviewing its ratings for major car producers including Ford, Chrysler and General Motors.

If it downgrades their investment ratings, their borrowing costs could increase.

Ford shares closed down 8.1% and General Motors fell 6.8%.

Earlier this month, General Motors said it was closing four SUV and truck factories in the US, Canada and Mexico in response to falling demand.

[Jacques]

PAG are in massive trouble so Ford have had to do this.

[JonnyHungwell]

2L is regarded as a small engiine in US terms. In order to achieve power combined with quietness on long journies, anything less is useless - and Americans won't move to manuals in large numbers. Manuals only account for 10% of the market. The love affair with the car is far from over, because there is no alternative for most of the US population. These crazy oil prices are only a blip, it may well go up to $200 a barrel in the short term - but long term it will come down to around $100 once the cunts in the markets have squeezed all the profit they can and move onto something else. The solution to problems in the markets is to ban hedge funds and tightly regulate futures markets - and put a load of the conning managers behind bars for fraud.

[speedybert]

One of the other problems with the motor industry is over production anyway.Even the "luxury" sector over produce.

I worked for BMW for some 10 years up until a few years ago.

When I first started many of the models were subject to waiting lists and as a result you would not get a discount.At the time there was a 14% profit margin in the cars too.BMW effectivley drip fed it's Dealers.

This had lasted for decades and continued for a few years until BMW GB requested more production.At the same time as they got more production they started to reduce profit margins.First 10% then 8% and now it's down to 5% I think.Then the discounting started and the "manufacturer" registrations.All of this down to the fact that the then Chairman of BMW GB wanted to increase BMWs market share.Before long some models could be had for less than the cost price to the dealer simply because the bigger Dealer Groups could afford to discount heavily because they would gain large Bonuses through the "back door".

Whereas some models would go for in some cases 12-18 months before deals were available it's now weeks.Great for the consumer at the point of purchase but nowhere near as good when it comes to resale.As my old boss put it "BMW have fucked themselves in this Country".

Interestingly the most profitable models in the BMW group are MINI which currently enjoy minimal discount levels and have done since the start in 2001.

For years one of the most profitable marques in the motor industry has been......

SKODA one of the cleverest brand reinventions in history.

[planeterotica]

There is a theory doing the rounds that Western Goverments are behind the hike in oil prices as it is the only way they can curtail the motorist from making unecessary journeys and therefore cutting fuel emissions and raising more revenue for their own pet schemes ie: a green tax via the back door, now wether you buy into this theory or not you have to admit that Western Goverments seem to be doing very little to bring down the price of oil apart from making the rare statement that they will see what they can do about it but without any real action taking place.

I was driving down the M1 yesterday evening and it was very noticeable how light the traffic was compaired to a few weeks ago, so maybe the high oil price is having an effect on the journeys that people make.

[speedybert]

To add to that point ,BMW created the C1 to get over the average emissions requirement to make them a cleaner company.Every dealership was forced to sell them UNTIL.....Bingo the MINI came along.Job done.

It has long been known in the motor industry that California governs everything when it comes to emissions and that whenever the major manufacturers need to test technology with regards to emissions etc they go to Arnie & the rest first.

In fact there was a rumour doing the rounds a few years ago that a device that could be fitted into all gloveboxes of all cars could produce Speed/Emissions info just by a Highway patrol cop plugging in a reader.Being tested by all manufacturers.

[Nob3y]

I once worked in a mazda garage,
mx5's you would never discount as they sold themselves cayse they are so popular.
same when i worked at a honda garage,s2000's are the same,they dont discount due to demand.

[speedybert]

Previous model 5 Series-Not discounted for the first 2 years.
Z3-2-3 years
X5-3-4 years
MINI-pretty much never unless corporate.
3 Series Convertible(previous model)not for the first couple of years.Same with M3s & M5s(which were often sold on at a profit by customers!Although BMW tried to stop this)

However when some of the bigger Dealer Groups started to do it(needlessly)everyone else followed suit.

Honda and Mazda probably got it right by getting the dealers to stick to their guns,also both those marques have a smaller market share I think which means less product availability and cerytianly not a big production increase as with BMW.