From Bloomberg:
Ford Motor Co., the world’s third- larges automaker, expects U.S. industrywide auto sales this month to decline from a year earlier…
Fields declined to comment on details of the company’s plans to boost small-car production and to build U.S. versions of models made by its European unit. The company disclosed its general plans on June 20. Ford said it would bring the European version of the Focus small car to North America to replace an older version of the model made in the U.S.
I think this can be traced back to the redesign of the Taurus back in the late 90’s. I, and apparently alot of other people, liked the original version of the Taurus and the styling of the car. After the horrible redesign of the Taurus, most people went very, very far away from Ford cars. Ford Trucks maintained a place at the top.
This worked when gas was cheap. Ford had no problem with maintaining profitability when selling marked up trucks and SUVs, even as non-truck buyers left Ford and never came back. Fast forward to today, and Ford is in alot of trouble financially.
Ford suffers from a paradox: They have way too many models and yet rely on a particular market segment for sales. Compare Ford with Dodge, Toyota, Honda, and Chevrolet.
Ford has 19 models. Toyota also has 19, while Chevy has 20! One of the issues that Ford and the US automakers as a whole are dealing with is that they have way too many models to deal with. Yes, I know Toyota has that many as well, but the difference is the way the balance is with their model sales. Toyota only recently went into light-trucks/SUVs, compared with US automakers. Toyota doesn’t have the reliance on fuel dependent sales like the Big Three do.
So the easy solution would be to cut down on the number of models and simply the business model. But Ford has so many different power bases to satisfy (dealers, consumers, shareholders, factory workers/unions) that it may just be too difficult for them to do.
Meanwhile, Honda is a much more lean company in terms of models. They have room to expand compared to the other big automakers. I wouldn’t be surprised if they come out ahead in terms of future growth.
The Highwayman 