Ford dangles $10K discounts on aluminum F-150

Ford dangles $10K discounts on aluminum F-150

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DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. has begun offering discounts that can exceed $10,000 on its new aluminum-bodied F-150 pickup, which has been losing sales and market share this year as the automaker works to build inventory on dealer lots.

The company's website offers "up to $10,029 in total savings" on a 2015 F-150 XLT SuperCab 4X4 with the luxury chrome or sport package in some U.S. regions.

That model comes with a discount of $7,050 in other areas, according to Ford.com.

U.S. sales slid 8.9 percent last month for Ford's F-Series pickups, its top-selling line and most profitable vehicles.

The truck's share of the big pickup market fell to 28 percent in June from 33 percent a year earlier, according to Autodata Corp.

Ford blamed tight inventory caused by the conversion of two plants to build the trucks, the first mass-market vehicles to use lightweight aluminum so extensively.

“The truck hasn’t sold up to expectations for the most part,” said Akshay Anand, an analyst at auto researcher Kelley Blue Book. “This may be a hint that in certain parts of the country, the issue might just be more than supply.”

Improving inventory of F-150 is allowing Ford to offer more competitive incentives as part of its Summer Sales Event promotion, Erich Merkle, the company’s sales analyst, said Wednesday. He said overall incentive spending is down from a year ago and that the truck is selling for $44,100 on average, the highest transaction price in the segment.

“What will be more telling is whether the incentives start to go out nationwide,” Kelley Blue Book’s Anand said. “If limited to higher end trims and packages, this may not have a huge effect for the moment, as a truck still makes plenty of profit.”

Ford cut spending on marketing promotions per vehicle 16 percent in this year's first half to an average $2,736, according to Autodata, which found smaller increases by General Motors Co. to $3,427 and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV to $3,277.

Limited supply

Ford has said it had only half its normal inventory of the F-150 on dealer lots in June and won't have a full supply until the end of September.

F-Series sales fell 2.4 percent in the first half and have dented Ford's earnings.

The trucks were the top-selling vehicle line in the U.S. for the 33rd straight year in 2014. The new F-150's fuel economy increased as much as 29 percent, primarily because the use of aluminum trimmed the truck's weight by about 700 pounds (318 kilograms).

Some dealers began advertising discounts of $10,000 to $11,000 off the new F-150 in June, Automotive News reported on July 1.

Asked about the dealer ads touting $10,000 discounts on F-150, Ford's top U.S. sales executive said the incentives were being offered by individual dealers.

"I can tell you that that number of $10,000 is commonly used by our competition," said Mark LaNeve, vice president of U.S. marketing, sales and service. "So you've probably seen a competitive response by a given individual dealer."

Sales of GM's Chevrolet Silverado truck jumped 18 percent last month, as its share of the full-size pickup market grew two points to 25.9 percent. Sales rose 0.6 percent for Fiat Chrysler's Ram pickup and gained 4.3 percent in the first half.

Automotive News

Should Ford go back to the drawing board with the F-150?
Just re-stamp the body parts in conventional metals?
Drop the whole twin-turbo small displacement engine idea?

The twin turbo motor has been available for 4 years. I hardly see that as a reason for sales to change. Ford is just the target for now, like GM was when they brought out their last redesign.

I was thinking more along the lines of their only having one V8 option. Not sure why I just didn't say it that way. You may be right through, people may just be slow warming up to the whole thing. With the aluminum Super Duty also coming out in the near future, it's a bit late for any rethinking anyway.

Ford's big marketing has been the "aluminum" innovations. Simply there isn't much pull on the public for this innovation. Were pickup buyers clamoring to get an aluminum pickup? No. Issue is pickup buyers don't desire aluminum. They don't give a rats @ss. The aluminum primary marketing is efficiency. Issue is, GM and Ram are right there in the mix with steel trucks.

700 lbs lighter is toss around like the gospel. The 700 lb difference is specific configurations. Some configurations are near only 200 lbs lighter. Add to that they are comparing to Ford's previous trucks which were the heaviest comparatively.

So when it's boiled down, you can get a GM 1500 with the 6.2 and eight speed, A Ram 1500 with 5.7 and eight speed, or a F-150 with their halo 3.5 EB or a mediocre 5.0 liter. The GM And Ram have a solid V8, rumble, and get on par fuel economy comparatively.

There's simply a true lack of compelling reasons for buyers. Without a doubt the F-150 is a decent truck, issue is, there are others that might be decent and then some.

July numbers are likely to be very telling.

Ford: Our Incentives Are Still Lower than Overall Segment

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A Ford spokesman said Friday that despite the automaker offering nearly $11,000 on particular F-150 models, their incentives are still under the segment average.

“It’s not like every F-150 customer walking into a Ford dealer today — whether they’re in L.A. or New York — is going to get $10,000 off of every single model,” Truck Communications Manager Mike Levine said.

“On average, we’re lower than the segment.”

Levine said the $10,819 we reported on yesterday was a specific truck in a specific area. Those numbers, such as $7,050 off, that Ford publicizes on its website aren’t indicative of every incentive available.

That’s a very specific set of incentives that are all stacked together that gets you to $10,000,” he said.

According to Ford, those incentives include: $3,769 average dealer discount; $500 customer cash; $1,000 XLT customer cash; $300 2.7-liter V6 EcoBoost bonus cash; $2,000 302A XLT Luxury Chrome or Sport packages.; $2,500 bonus cash; and $750 Ford Credit Bonus Cash, which requires Ford Credit financing.

Levine said the average incentive offered on a F-150 is $3,354, which is $800 lower than the segment average and lower than the automaker had offered one year ago.

Dealer inventories are down, Levine said, and Ford needs to stay competitive.

“For this particular truck, we’re helping customers get into a better truck. It’s something that we do from time-to-time, and it’s in line with what our competitors do,” he said.

Representatives from Ram and General Motors didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

TTAC

Is that Mike Levine from the old Pickup Trucks forum owner?

TheQuig wrote:

Is that Mike Levine from the old Pickup Trucks forum owner?

Yes.

joemac wrote:

So when it's boiled down, you can get a GM 1500 with the 6.2 and eight speed, A Ram 1500 with 5.7 and eight speed, or a F-150 with their halo 3.5 EB or a mediocre 5.0 liter.   The GM And Ram have a solid V8, rumble, and get on par fuel economy comparatively.

exactly!!

and also exactly why my shopping list will be GMC, Toyota, and Ram...

GM was throwing big discounts on its "new" body style shortly after launch as well.

Ford is blowing up my email with 0% for 72months on all 2015 F150's, on top of the rebates.

Looks like they are going all out to remain on top.

I had to put Ford marketing into the SPAM black hole of death. Offering me unrealistic trade in values $1k less than I paid for my current truck with several asterisks appended and print in a -2.5 font.

I get the same type of emails at least once a week from Chevy and Honda. I have a hard time believing there is a strong demand for our 2010 vehicles.

I am seeing more and more new F150s here by the day. I think the reason for the lackluster sales are not many people wanting newer pickups bc of such low interest rates for years, the new models isn't as attractive looking as the old, and the lack of good V8 option.

theshyguy wrote:

the lack of good V8 option.

This is likely the most unspoken element of the entire situation. Ford's V8 offering is essentially the worst when you consider the V8's from Ram, GM, Toyota. Much of the truck legacy has V8 ingrained. Not to hard to extrapolate many don't want a second rate V8.