Solution to Poor FG Sales ?

[glavas]

Originally Posted by saber

Why?? How does having a V8 as the flagship equate more confidence in the brand and sell more cars???

because a v8 is awsome and people see them as the epitome of engines! i would buy a factory blown v8 from ford and use it as a daily and i dont evenlike the falcon. what does that tell ya?

[mik]

Originally Posted by snappy

A blown V8 would be a good place to start :

Im excited by the new donk It generated a lot of buzz on the job site(big site hospital) talking about this . It was quite funny because a few blokes were getting ****ed off . They were saying ther ****ed off because now there going to have to buy a new car . It was just a great day to be a ford fan

funny you should mention that , the other day i ended up on a bmw forum by accident, i thought while i`m here i`ll have a sticky beak what beemer guys chatted about , there was a thread on the ford coyote engine series and a lot of intrest in the new banger and i`d say 80% of the post`s were generally positive about fords direction too, i thought that was very interesting,
back on topic how can they sell more cars, keep doing what they are doing, make better cars , the other thing is......put back into the business something that has slowly ebbed away over the years in all parts of society and customer related concern`s i think and that is ........... qaulity service, if you treat a customer like a checkout chick in coles and send them on their way , it will be an experience for the customer that he will quickly want to forget, if you treat a festiva owner like he bought a
Rolls Royce he will remember this and tell all his friends, happy customers don`t buy the the other brand cars.

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by 4Vman

This point, and the fact that Ford are at capacity right now seems lost on so many.....

What I don't understand is why Ford Asia Pacific made another surprising $75 million loss last year.
I could understand the previous $153 million loss in 2008 when FoA lost $275 million...
China and Asia are absolute gold mines for Ford so what's going on?
Is someone else in the region spending up big, Thailand on new plants?

[b0son]

Originally Posted by 4Vman

This point, and the fact that Ford are at capacity right now seems lost on so many.....

how many shifts are they running?

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by b0son

how many shifts are they running?

4Vman recons it's impossible for suppliers to ramp up, they are obviously
stuck at low production levels unable to surge with freshening market.

[TheZHLANE]

make them less ugly

[irish2]

Originally Posted by jpd80

4Vman recons it's impossible for suppliers to ramp up, they are obviously
stuck at low production levels unable to surge with freshening market.

It may not be the supplies can't ramp up production. More simply that ramping up production costs more per unit. If you have a yacht with a 20hp motor it may achieve best efficiency running at 5 knots. 5 knots may be achieved by 50% throttle. To achieve 7 knots may require 100% throttle so it is not as efficient.

[TUF_302]

I also think the addition of a blown V8 will help get Fords image back out there, best think is it seems this is going to happen in the next few months!

[Joe5619]

Originally Posted by TUF_302

I also think the addition of a blown V8 will help get Fords image back out there, best think is it seems this is going to happen in the next few months!

I agree!! I think the new V8 will be a good thing for the Falcon.. I just wish they'd make a G8E, but dont thing that will happen.

[Bobman]

There's still a lot of people out there who do not like the look of the FG and much preferred the BA styling.

As others have said, many people will say they hate Fords when they've never driven one or even know much about them. They say it just because their mate said it. Shame they can't think for themselves!

[4Vman]

Originally Posted by irish2

It may not be the supplies can't ramp up production. More simply that ramping up production costs more per unit. If you have a yacht with a 20hp motor it may achieve best efficiency running at 5 knots. 5 knots may be achieved by 50% throttle. To achieve 7 knots may require 100% throttle so it is not as efficient.

That and a complex equation of suppliers needing to ramp up and the line needing to plan.... It doesn't happen over night and it's costly if you get it wrong..

[dannyhilton]

Ford have a vehicle that is 8/10 there. I keep saying this, but they have two elements missing. Some will disagree whole heartedly, but little things like Auto up/down windows and exciting options such as Ford SYNC, while seen as gimmicky, when bundled in one package make the motoring experience easier. That's just my opinion, and many will disagree so start the grilling and get it over and done with. The other is marketing/dealerships. I had to go to over 12 dealerships to find one that actually gave a rats behind about me, this is not acceptable. I'm a Ford fan and I knew what I wanted, so image if you don't know what you want and couldn't care less about brands? No wonder people steer clear from Ford, people in the dealerships either annoy the hell out of you or walk away when they see you. And yes, I buy all my vehicles new so I'm entitled to my opinion. The later part of this is their marketing, the whole 'Ford of course' thing was good for a while, but now it's boring. Ford need to tug at the heart strings of consumers, I get goosebumps when I see an Audi advert, they inspire me, beautiful lighting, the scenes are breathtaking and the music is equally well sorted. Ford need to be a company you buy from because you are inspired by their vehicles, and their advertising.

We need another 60's consumer showing, get a few Falcons to do 100 laps of some famous circuit, market the hell out of it, get the Ford US president down here and say Ford Australia has a future here, and prove the Falcon is reliable, exciting and inspiring. We have the same issue we did with the first Falcon, people don't believe in it...

[FPV70]

Ok, What other people think is obviously the entire point, so there for why not think like Toyota and Holden and market them like they do. As they say, when in rome, do as romans do.
Ford once was a great company selling many cars and man, they were pure muscle.
People talk about the bogan attitude and say that it's a thing of the past. Clearly not cause alot of BOGANdores get sold reguardless of if they make money from them or not. Lets stick to facts. Toyota sell alot of cars and so does Holden, so to me that is either saying Falcon needs to be front wheel drive or it needs to appeal to the Bogan market more so cause lets face it, Ford might have owned Aston Martin but, Falcon is NOT an Aston Martin nor is it a Volvo or LR. So why bother trying to sell something at low volumes when they are trying to be top.

Another thing is Salesmen need to be revised on how to sell a car and the service dept need to be revised on the term "SERVICE" as we "ARE" the customers.

If you want to be big, you gotta think big, not just Try to be it and relying on the past is just going to get you a sore neck from constantly looking back all the time.

[Falcman0o7]

Originally Posted by csv8

How can FORD increase FG sales ???
Holden by out FORD Australia and rebadge them as Holdens !!!
Then they will drive out the doors in record numbers!!!!!!

Easy. Do what holden do!
Advertise the falcon every 5 minutes and sound as if it's a jetfighting time machine with super powers and SIDI! <<< oh and direct injection

[Falcman0o7]

Originally Posted by dannyhilton

Ford have a vehicle that is 8/10 there. I keep saying this, but they have two elements missing. Some will disagree whole heartedly, but little things like Auto up/down windows and exciting options such as Ford SYNC, while seen as gimmicky, when bundled in one package make the motoring experience easier. That's just my opinion, and many will disagree so start the grilling and get it over and done with. The other is marketing/dealerships. I had to go to over 12 dealerships to find one that actually gave a rats behind about me, this is not acceptable. I'm a Ford fan and I knew what I wanted, so image if you don't know what you want and couldn't care less about brands? No wonder people steer clear from Ford, people in the dealerships either annoy the hell out of you or walk away when they see you. And yes, I buy all my vehicles new so I'm entitled to my opinion. The later part of this is their marketing, the whole 'Ford of course' thing was good for a while, but now it's boring. Ford need to tug at the heart strings of consumers, I get goosebumps when I see an Audi advert, they inspire me, beautiful lighting, the scenes are breathtaking and the music is equally well sorted. Ford need to be a company you buy from because you are inspired by their vehicles, and their advertising.

We need another 60's consumer showing, get a few Falcons to do 100 laps of some famous circuit, market the hell out of it, get the Ford US president down here and say Ford Australia has a future here, and prove the Falcon is reliable, exciting and inspiring. We have the same issue we did with the first Falcon, people don't believe in it...

Yeh those auto windows and folding mirrors make it a hard choice for me to :

[GTP-03]

LOOK at the end of the day every man and his dog knows that GM went bankrupt in one form or another, it has been thrown around in the media for a number of months, so I dont think thats Ford problem.

First of all, and this is very important, people want a good looking car on their list, yes a good looking car is number 1 on the list of many buyers, I know its in my list, so the Commodore although outdated wins hands down, this is were they are winning market share, it is as simple as that, otherwise the FG would be selling in a lot more numbers!

Many people will disagree with me but most people are Holden fans because of the looks/styling of the car rather than the technicality of the car or whats under the bonnet!

[Silver Ghia]

How to increase FG sales? Hate to, but have to say this:

Introduce a FG Sportswagon across the Falcon range, including V8 and Turbo versions. :

As I said before in another post, Falcon has been destined further down the list ever since Ford relegated the wagon to base BA or BF versions only.

Dont think Ford can do much more now that would significantly improve sales of the sedan or ute IMO. They will never get even near to Commodore levels, just look how many Sportswagons there are around, every second VE Commodore I see these days is a wagon.

[snappy]

Originally Posted by GTP-03

LOOK at the end of the day every man and his dog knows that GM went bankrupt in one form or another, it has been thrown around in the media for a number of months, so I dont think thats Ford problem.

First of all, and this is very important, people want a good looking car on their list, yes a good looking car is number 1 on the list of many buyers, I know its in my list, so the Commodore although outdated wins hands down, this is were they are winning market share, it is as simple as that, otherwise the FG would be selling in a lot more numbers!

Many people will disagree with me but most people are Holden fans because of the looks/styling of the car rather than the technicality of the car or whats under the bonnet!

I completely agree .
An the proof is there the G6 is there best seller
An the ba sold really well in the initial period . Until the rest of the experience muddy the waters for some.
Territory sold well initially to .
No coincidence there all good lookers.

[dannyhilton]

Originally Posted by Falcman0o7

Yeh those auto windows and folding mirrors make it a hard choice for me to :

Did you bother to read what I wrote? While these are not essential items, combining a group of them into one pack makes a car a whole lot more likeable. It's the little things that count. Can you honestly tell me you would rather hold down the window button all the way five times a day or have auto windows, it may not be a deal breaker by it's self but combining this with Global Entry and Global Close, well that's such a simple addition that can make the difference between a good and great feature, and therefore car. My car has a USB port, iPod Integration, Voice Control and Bluetooth. I could easily live without these items, but by combining these all together as one package my car is a whole lot more user friendly.

We have a fantastic Falcon already, we need to pay attention to these small things as the rest of the package is fantastic.

[phillyc]

A friend at work traded his EF Futura and bought an Aurion a few weeks back.

He liked the 'little techy things' that it offered that a Ford or GMHolden didn't. In particular the keyless entry and start. The other was the external mirrors moving downwards to aid reverse parking... He liked them because they were novel and good for the wife and 2 kids. This sort of thing is what DannyHilton is getting at.

[Windsor220]

Originally Posted by 4Vman

The reality is Ford is a smaller company than Holden,

Thats pretty much where its at these days. I wonder if Subaru or Mitsubishi enthusiasts talk about beating Toyota sales every month.

[FG XR]

re-design the fugly rear end!

[Paull]

Put a full tank of fuel in it when it is sold. Not sell a brand new car to a customer only for the customer (me) to get 5 minutes down the road and fuel light to come on.

I spoke with the salesman about this and he said that this is just how it is - what a bunch of major league tight ***** - not happy Jan!!!

[GTP-03]

Originally Posted by Paull

Put a full tank of fuel in it when it is sold. Not sell a brand new car to a customer only for the customer (me) to get 5 minutes down the road and fuel light to come on.

I spoke with the salesman about this and he said that this is just how it is - what a bunch of major league tight ***** - not happy Jan!!!

I bought a demo Territory and the dealer filled up the tank for me much to my suprise when I went to collect the vehicle, must be up to the discretion of the dealer.

[Eaturbo]

Few things to remember, it takes more than a few good models to gets customers back in the seat. AU Falcon did burn a few customers with resale and lack of real power and style. Also even though BA,BF,FG is a great car so to is the VE a great car with few faults and a ripper V8 engine. Ford has No modern wagon as such with Territory old news and Falcon wagon either a joke or now discontinued. There is no long wheel base cars LTD or Fairlane if your that way inclined. I still believe Ford should do a Very exclusive Luxury Sedan above the G6E and G6ET inline with a Caprice and really make it look trick with 19's and heaps of chrome, Howe leather, factory DVD HID lights and LED taillights. Leave the turbo off it to keep the price down to the G6ET price. Territory should have been updated to FG spec and looks when SY2 came out. VE wagon has sold very well as it looks good and as we all want, it looks different. The VE HSV wagon looks better than the HSV sedans

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by Windsor220

Thats pretty much where its at these days. I wonder if Subaru or Mitsubishi enthusiasts talk about beating Toyota sales every month.

No but I bet Hyundai and Mazda talk about knocking off Ford,
both are within about 800 sales of Ford at the end of March....


All Ford needs to do is hang tough, keep advertising and grow Falcon sales,
they are doing it with the right product mix now and doing away with station
wagon frees up space for a few more Territorys, G Series and XRs, and that
has to be good for business...

[burnz]

Originally Posted by Transfiguring R

Put a Chev badge on the Fords?

warranty would be better..

[Joe5619]

Originally Posted by Paull

Put a full tank of fuel in it when it is sold. Not sell a brand new car to a customer only for the customer (me) to get 5 minutes down the road and fuel light to come on.

I spoke with the salesman about this and he said that this is just how it is - what a bunch of major league tight ***** - not happy Jan!!!

well I just bought a new XR6T in Dec 2009 & it come with a full tank of fuel!!! Which I was surprised as the XL I bought was sold to me with an empty tanks & the Magna I bought from Madaz (2nd hand) was also sold to me with an empty tank.. So from all the cars I've bought only Ford put a full tank of fuel in it.. Different dealers, different levels of customer serivce!!

Originally Posted by Coyote V8

re-design the fugly rear end!

I love the rear end of the FG!! Very nice IMO

[bobthebilda]

A full tank of fuel in a Falcon is over $100. I'm sure in the darkest days of selling cars in 2009, If they put a full tank in, you would be driving off with their profits.

[jpd80]

Most people don't expect a full tank, the sight of a dealer
throwing $20 or $30 in the tank is enough for most people..