Ford Missing Market Share Goals

[P71_CrownVic]

Ford Motor Co. (F), after increasing its share of the U.S. light-vehicle market for the last two years, is falling short of its retail goal this year, which may put pressure on the automaker to offer larger discounts.

 

Ford in the first quarter had 13.6 percent of the U.S. retail auto market, which excludes sales to fleet buyers, according to researcher Edmunds.com. That trailed the 14.1 percent target Ford’s board set for executives to match or exceed this year, according to the Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker’s government filings.

 

Ford’s share slipped as General Motors Co. (GM) increased sales incentives 11 percent in the first three months of the year, according to Autodata Corp. of Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. Ford, which reduced discounts by 9.1 percent in the first quarter, saw its total U.S. market share fall to 16.2 percent from 16.8 percent a year earlier, Autodata said.

 

LINK-Bloomberg

 

See...you overprice your appliances, people will look elsewhere.

[MikeNH]

Cue the one-sided babble about fleet dumping...

[P71_CrownVic]

Cue the one-sided babble about fleet dumping...

 

It's not "one-sided babble" when Ford specifically notes fleet sales in their monthly sales press release:

 

In March, total sales were 212,777, up 19 percent. Retail sales were up 14 percent and fleet sales were up 29 percent

[zelinadc]

Whats the issue with Fleet Sales? I'd try to sell as many widgets to as many Buyers as I could. In business (manufacturing, more commonly) its about Cost-Volume-Profit (CVP). At some point in sales volume, fixed costs are covered and only the variable mfg costs remain. In other words, profit is made at an increasing rate. I know about the Ford marketing about being the sales leader and all, but who would really base their $30k purchase on advertising non-sense. I own a F150 and I could really care less about the "sales leadership" Looks good on TV for the masses I suppose.