Monday, July 27, 2009

Ford Sales Increase Due To Bankruptcies


Here is an interesting article on the American psyche.....it is interesting to see people's perceptions. Based on a survey released today from Rasmussen Reports....46% of Americans are more likely to by a Ford than vehicles from GM or Chrysler. The reason is that Ford did not take bailout money from the government. Apparently, there is a lot of resentment against the bailout.

The latest sales report for June substantiates the
survey. Ford sales were down only 11% and GM sales were down 33% and Chrysler down 42% respectively. GM was in the midst of the bankruptcy during June so that may have had an impact on the survey. Chrysler had already come out of the bankruptcy.

One issue not addressed in the survey is that Ford quality has been continually improving over the last few years. In addition, they have brought out some very competitive cars like the Fusion Hybrid, Taurus and the Mustang. So, both quality and competitive cars could be part of the increase sales.

Personally, I was incensed the way that
Chrysler closed 789 dealers giving them a minimum of notice...whereas GM gave their dealers that they were closing over a year to wind down the business. Closing that many dealers in the month of June may have impacted Chrysler sales in that month.....so we will see how this trend continues.

In fact, there were a number of people and organizations that were burned by the bankruptcies. The worst were people that had been severely hurt by vehicle malfunctions that now do not have much recourse since GM and Chrysler have gone into bankruptcy. I will be doing a future post on the damages inflicted due to the bankruptcies.

Another interesting fact is that 41% of Americ
ans expect the quality of GM cars to get worse now that the government is the majority owner.


SUMMARY:

I don't necessarily agree with all the perceptions that have been outlined by the Rasmussen survey. I did not like the fact that G
M and Chrysler had to be bailed out...but I viewed it as the only scenario that would work to save a number of jobs and deepening an extremely severe recession.

I hope that the government will stay out of GM and Chrysler management. In two or three years, the economy will be rebounding and auto sales will be increasing materially. I suspect that the GM will prepare a stock offering and the government will be out within a couple of years after that.

8 comments:

  1. Hi Pete
    I am glad to hear that Ford is doing better. I hope them keep it up. I did have a bad tast in my mouth ten years ago. May be I will give them another try someday. :-)
    Thank you for sharing.
    Giovanna Garcia
    Imperfect Action is better than No Action

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  2. Hi Giovanna,

    Your experience is not to unusual....when people have a bad automobile experience they remember it for long time!

    Ford appears to be the highest rated American manufacturer overall in reliability. Actually, based upon our experiences I would not hesitate to buy a Ford. We have purchased a number of Fords over the last few years and have never had any problems.

    Yet, I purchased a Toyota Sequoia for my wife and it turned out to be a lemon. My wife will probably never consider a Toyota or Toyota product again.

    Thanks for your comment!

    Pete Baca
    The Car Enthusiast Online

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  3. Hi Pete .. interesting about the Toyota for your wife. My uncle in the 60s used to buy Fords .. we thought he was mad! but I suspect he was right .. my parents carried on with good old British cars ..

    It will be interesting to see where the sales figures go .. I don't know if the same is happening over here .. unintended consequences seem to be a sign of the times now .. in all walks of life ..

    All the best Hilary Melton-Butcher
    Positive Letters

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  4. Hi Pete,
    Very ineresting info as usual. I agree with you that the government needs to stay out of the way, and let companies learn on their own. Chrysler needs to learn how to make a quality vehicle!! Good job Ford for not taking any hand outs. I wonder if Bank of America has learned anything from Ford??? Probably not!!!!
    Thanks,
    Dr. Bob

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  5. Hi Hilary,

    Toyota is not a good name in our household! It is interesting that people are surprised by our experience. My wife was so concerned about the safety of the vehicle that she demanded that it be traded.

    We have purchased a number of Fords in the last ten years and have not had a major problem with any of them.

    I have not bewen able to find sales information in England.....as that would be a good measure of activity there. If you have a site that shows that information I would be appreciative.

    Thank for your comment!

    Pete Baca
    The Car Enthusiast Online

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  6. Hello Dr. Bob,

    Yes, Chrysler needs to improve their reliability substantially. Fiat now controls Chrysler, so I would anticipate that quality will be improving.

    Actually, I am not a Bank of America fan. I view them a predatory bank with all their fees. I would not recommend doing business with them...there has not been any legislation to cut back on bad banking practices. So, I think your correct...they will not learn a thing.

    Thanks for the comment!

    Pete Baca
    The Car Enthusiast Online

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  7. Hello Peter,

    Hope that you had a good vacation. It is nice to see you back. We missed our car updates.Good for Ford. Hope that they keep going strong. Do not like the way things were handled with the other two. The government wants there hands in every aspect of peoples lives now and that is not a good thing.

    We will wait to hear more about the bail out and the other things that you talk about. We will keep coming back for all the good things that we learn here. Thank you so much.

    Dan and Deanna "Marketing Unscrambled"

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  8. Hi Dan & Deanna,

    Thanks, it's good to be back....just now starting to get back in the swing of things.

    We go from one extreme to the other. Much of what we are seeing is the counter reaction to the excesses of the Bush administration. Unfortunately, we are all impacted in one way or another.

    Thank you so much for your kind words!

    Pete Baca
    The Car Enthusiast Online

    ReplyDelete