End of the road for Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore

[TWRv12]

Companies and advisers involved in the car industry have begun talking openly about Ford, the No. 3 car maker, quitting local production in 2016.

Ford’s demise is seen as inevitable and suppliers are starting to factor it into business plans that are increasingly focused on product and geographical diversification.

http://afr.com/p/national/car_indust...LmpuveABX3eyOI

[GTRMagic]

There have been a few big name Ford dealerships change hands in recent times for prices that seem undercooked..

Former Britek & Formula Ford championship winning (with Mr Larkham & Mr Ingall) sponsor Coffey Ford recently changed hands for $2m Here, which perhaps reflects the state of volumes in the blue oval dealerships

Ford hasnt tried to tickle business along with fancy financing packages to stimulate demand. Nissan, VW, Toyota, Renault, Subaru, Mercedes, Volvo and friends have all participated in low interest rate financing most recently, and from the look of the sales numbers, this has been helping shift a lot of product.

Whether there is money to be made out of financing is the challenge... being able to flex the interest rates on a customer's borrowings is where many dealerships have made their money.

What will happen going forward with fixed price servicing, as against full price servicing which is another post-sale source of strong margins and indeed ongoing cashflows, will be interesting..

[TWRv12]

Hope they are all wrong, sad to hear of anyone thinking of closing a factory

[Downoz]

http://www.news.com.au/national/ford...-1226517474664



It does not matter which company, Ford, GM or any other it is workers in our Country that are on the scrap heap.

[GTRMagic]

The thing I still havent worked out is why there is still a healthy trade in selling Ford dealerships. The likes of AHG & AP Eagers have more than a few in the portfolio, and have kicked tyres and/or consummated deals to eat up a number of family dealerships

Just like Mitsubishi and Nissan before them, if/when Ford pulls out, surely the market value of some of these dealers simply evaporates?

[Chris - Melb]

Ford sells the world's most popular car (the Focus) unlike Nissan or Mitsubishi. Not to mention the other world Ford models which are doing well here in Australia.

Or are you saying that unless you sell locally produced cars your dealership is worthless? On that basis Mazda dealerships must be dirt cheap to buy.

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by Chris - Melb

Ford sells the world's most popular car (the Focus) unlike Nissan or Mitsubishi. Not to mention the other world Ford models which are doing well here in Australia.

Or are you saying that unless you sell locally produced cars your dealership is worthless? On that basis Mazda dealerships must be dirt cheap to buy.

What I am suggesting is that the Ford dealer network is arguably still set up as if they sold 3 times as many cars as they do now, meaning each dealer is likely to be struggling as a standalone with 1/3 the cars leaving the showroom floor

Which would have an impact on profit and dealer valuations..

[Chris - Melb]

That's true. It will also start to apply to Holden dealerships sometime soon.

Holden Cruz sales are going down and will have to compete against the cheap imported Thailand Focus. Not to mention the other competition in a class and the biggest competition of all, the high Australia dollar.

Commodore sales are now crashing too, so there won't be the need for so many Holden dealers.

This is a race that neither Holden or Ford are going to do too well in.

I guess what I was trying to say in my post was that Ford sales are not going to crash dramatically if local production ends, so there will still be value in owning a Ford dealership in the long-term.

[GROUPA]

Ford marketing is just hopeless….the Ford Ecoboost is a decent car but there has hardly been any marketing of the car. Also might help if they brought out a diesel for the Falcon and a few other models to boot. You would be bonkers to purchase a Falcon now if you were a private buyer (let alone fleet), Mondeo makes more sense

[bluesport]

Originally Posted by GROUPA

Ford marketing is just hopeless….the Ford Ecoboost is a decent car but there has hardly been any marketing of the car. Also might help if they brought out a diesel for the Falcon and a few other models to boot. You would be bonkers to purchase a Falcon now if you were a private buyer (let alone fleet), Mondeo makes more sense

The 2 litre ecoboost 4 cylinder has been getting rave reviews and is arguably the best petrol engine in the Ford range with 74kg less weight, more power and comparable torque to the old venerable SOHC 4 litre six cylinder.

[GROUPA]

Originally Posted by bluesport

The 2 litre ecoboost 4 cylinder has been getting rave reviews and is arguably the best petrol engine in the Ford range with 74kg less weight, more power and comparable torque to the old venerable SOHC 4 litre six cylinder.

Yes I know but rave reviews have not translated to rave sales and hence the market has spoken.

Ford missed the boat years ago first dropping the V8 after the XE they lost a generation of potential buyers for kids having an interest in Australian cars followed HDT/HSV....later they lost it again with no replacement for the Laser and relying on the Falcon....sure a few years there the XR6 Turbo was the ducks guts but the market moved again and Ford was reading from another book

As for the finance package luxury brands like Mercedes have been doing this for sometime...now trickling down to mainstream cars will put a further nail in the coffin of big Aussie 6.

[Chris - Melb]

Originally Posted by GROUPA

Yes I know but rave reviews have not translated to rave sales and hence the market has spoken.

How could the market have spoken if the market doesn't know that the car exists?

[Marcos WTF]

Originally Posted by GROUPA

Ford marketing is just hopeless….the Ford Ecoboost is a decent car but there has hardly been any marketing of the car. Also might help if they brought out a diesel for the Falcon and a few other models to boot. You would be bonkers to purchase a Falcon now if you were a private buyer (let alone fleet), Mondeo makes more sense

Agreed. frod marketing seems more focused ( no pun) on 'conectivity' so one can plug in ya MP3/smartphone/ whatever gadget is flavour of the month).

WTF happened to extolling the things that actually matter in a car?
You know. Minor stuff like performance, safety, enconomy, looks, price etc.
frod are just xxxxing on their heritage. Such as it was

[pigs fly]

Originally Posted by Marcos WTF

Agreed. frod marketing seems more focused ( no pun) on 'conectivity' so one can plug in ya MP3/smartphone/ whatever gadget is flavour of the month).

WTF happened to extolling the things that actually matter in a car?
You know. Minor stuff like performance, safety, enconomy, looks, price etc.
frod are just xxxxing on their heritage. Such as it was

TOO true frod just keep stuffing it up and I don't feel sorry for management but really sorry for workers who will pay with thier jobs.

[GTRMagic]

Just wait til Toyota brings its new finance model into the retail market

There is a strategy apparently to mimic the US concept of a fully maintained operating lease, charging a set price per month, and all you have to do is keep the mileage within agreed numbers (reflected in the price), the car serviced at genuine Toyota dealers, and put fuel in it, and there should be no other costs

Supposedly this is scheduled for a 2013 Q1 launch

It should be an absolute gamechanger in the industry!

Imagine driving a brand new Corolla for say $400 a month.. No more to pay. Then get a new one for the same money in 3 years time..

[Tourer]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

It should be an absolute gamechanger in the industry!

Sorry, can't agree - those types of finances packages have been around literally for decades from the luxury brands plus have also been available from finance companies for quite some years.

Could be new to Toyota or for that matter to a volume manufacturer finance arm but game changer? Not even close.

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by Tourer

Sorry, can't agree - those types of finances packages have been around literally for decades from the luxury brands plus have also been available from finance companies for quite some years.

Could be new to Toyota or for that matter to a volume manufacturer finance arm but game changer? Not even close.

I think you might be surprised.. the likes of Lexus, Mercedes Benz and BMW have been playing the guaranteed buyback game for a number of years...

... but the likes of Toyota with mainstream cars.. it will be something new..

A couple of importers have offered near-zero interest rates through their dealer networks, and enjoyed a significant volume upswing in models that previously couldnt been brought to life with any other means...

Metal is moving... and the finance solution is one of the reasons for the activity..

Whether this pulls forward demand, or adds to the overall aggregate is a numbers game that nobody seems to understand just yet.. but the accretive activities in the servicing and parts divisions from the increase in the carpark is something that will pay back the dealer for the next 5 years.

In the Toyota example, they are said to also be decentralising some of their fleet activities, allowing local dealers the ability to sell/deliver/administer fleet sales activities in their PMA.

Someone is thinking outside the box... and with borrowings in Japan possible at less than 1% p.a. coupon rate, and an economy locally that is supposedly the best thing since sliced bread... lets see what the world delivers us

[Tourer]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

I think you might be surprised.. the likes of Lexus, Mercedes Benz and BMW have been playing the guaranteed buyback game for a number of years...

... but the likes of Toyota with mainstream cars.. it will be something new..

A couple of importers have offered near-zero interest rates through their dealer networks, and enjoyed a significant volume upswing in models that previously couldnt been brought to life with any other means...

Metal is moving... and the finance solution is one of the reasons for the activity..

Whether this pulls forward demand, or adds to the overall aggregate is a numbers game that nobody seems to understand just yet.. but the accretive activities in the servicing and parts divisions from the increase in the carpark is something that will pay back the dealer for the next 5 years.

In the Toyota example, they are said to also be decentralising some of their fleet activities, allowing local dealers the ability to sell/deliver/administer fleet sales activities in their PMA.

Someone is thinking outside the box... and with borrowings in Japan possible at less than 1% p.a. coupon rate, and an economy locally that is supposedly the best thing since sliced bread... lets see what the world delivers us

Yep, let's see but fully maintained finance packages (which are what you referred to in your initial post) have been around for years from the prestige finance arms - also at volume dealers although offered through the finance companies rather than manufacturer finance arms. Mountainstar is right, not just for the USA - this type of finance has been around a long time.

Strange that Toyota are only decentralising fleet activity now - others have again been doing it for a very long time.

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by Tourer

Yep, let's see but fully maintained finance packages (which are what you referred to in your initial post) have been around for years from the prestige finance arms - also at volume dealers although offered through the finance companies rather than manufacturer finance arms. Mountainstar is right, not just for the USA - this type of finance has been around a long time.

Strange that Toyota are only decentralising fleet activity now - others have again been doing it for a very long time.

Toyota makes shedloads from their fleet deals.. some of the most successful ones, and where the buyback/fixed cost per month deals works is with Coca Cola, supplying a variety of different models for their demonstration, corporate & executive fleets... decentralising this may change the go to market model a fair bit...

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Just wait til Toyota brings its new finance model into the retail market

There is a strategy apparently to mimic the US concept of a fully maintained operating lease, charging a set price per month, and all you have to do is keep the mileage within agreed numbers (reflected in the price), the car serviced at genuine Toyota dealers, and put fuel in it, and there should be no other costs

Supposedly this is scheduled for a 2013 Q1 launch

It should be an absolute gamechanger in the industry!

Imagine driving a brand new Corolla for say $400 a month.. No more to pay. Then get a new one for the same money in 3 years time..

Oh you guys don't have that?

We've had that for over 20 years.

Usually there is several thousand $ up front for various fees they hit you up for when you sign. As an example:

http://www.toyotafinancial.com/consu...ilsPage_unsctf

Leases usually sucker in "payment buyers" or business owners or those that like new cars and like to trade in all the time. They are not always financially advantageous.

[aj_308]

Originally Posted by mountainstar

Oh you guys don't have that?

We've had that for over 20 years.

um, we have too, for 25 years that I know of.

How is an operating lease new GTR? There's at least 5 leasing companies in Australia with over 20,000 Operating leases on their books?

Back on topic, I can't feel sorry for Ford.

Consumers have spoken and said that they don't want large cars (see Corolla and Mazda 3 sales increases in the last 5 years)
The Govt. coughs up our tax money to Ford in the way of grants..
..so they put a 4 cylinder and gas into the Falcon no-one wants to buy.

Holden at least wised up and found the Cruze from the international GM car bin. Its selling pretty good for what it is.

[Downoz]

If Ford keeps building 400 kw cars like this, be a good thing http://www.carsguide.com.au/news-and...gt_police_car/

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by aj_308

um, we have too, for 25 years that I know of.

How is an operating lease new GTR? There's at least 5 leasing companies in Australia with over 20,000 Operating leases on their books?

Its headed for the mainstream, to the mass market... not just for those who are clever enough to know it exists

Toyota Financial Services has some amazing firepower, able to borrow in Japan at almost 0%, resell the cash here at 6+%... its kind of a wait and see.

A couple of others financiers are planning something similar...

[Marcos WTF]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Just wait til Toyota brings its new finance model into the retail market

There is a strategy apparently to mimic the US concept of a fully maintained operating lease, charging a set price per month, and all you have to do is keep the mileage within agreed numbers (reflected in the price), the car serviced at genuine Toyota dealers, and put fuel in it, and there should be no other costs

Supposedly this is scheduled for a 2013 Q1 launch

It should be an absolute gamechanger in the industry!

Imagine driving a brand new Corolla for say $400 a month.. No more to pay. Then get a new one for the same money in 3 years time..

Please, please, don't wish that upon me. I can't concieve of anything worse than being stuck with whitegoods trying to pass its self off as a car. Well I can, but that involves hair removal with paint stripper.

Back on topic. As long time Holden/GM owner, fan, mechanic, I'm always pleased to see henry getting screwed.

BUT I am concerned with the loss of jobs & capability in this country.
We used to make so, so much in Australia. Now we're a nation of raw materials exporters. And that saddens me.

[bluesport]

Ford should put the ecoboost 4 cylinder in an AWD Fiesta.......I'd like to see that, it would be a pocket rocket.