Ford to dealers: Sell the F-150 and you may get to sell the Shelby GT500KR
The Ford F-Series has been the top-selling nameplate in America for a staggering 29 years, and in spite of ever-increasing competition, the folks from Dearborn will stop at absolutely nothing to keep that title alive for a 30th year. Ford already has up to $4,007 in customer cash on the F-150, and now it is giving dealers some serious incentive to offload as many full-size trucks as possible. The dealer incentive isn't a cash stipend to the dealer or salesman, but a slot in a lottery to sell one of the 50 Shelby GT500KRs being made for the 2009 model year. Total production for the KR is only 1,000 units, so the markup will likely run into the tens of thousands of dollars, making any dealer very pleased. For moving pickups, dealers are also getting special edition F-150 die-cast models (Ford loves giving away die-cast models) and dealers also have a chance to host a Toby Keith concert.
Ford has repeatedly said that it will retain its full-size pickup leadership, and the Blue Oval is coming up with some innovative ways to keep its most important product moving off the dealer lots. Right now the F-Series is up 45,000 units on the all-new Silverado. Let's see if that lead holds once GM begins using more cash incentives.
[Source: Auto News - sub. req'd]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Barney 9:20PM (7/09/2007)
Small dealers need not apply? I can't see some small town dealer getting the "privilege" to sell a Shelby.
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Jon 10:52PM (7/09/2007)
As long as it sells, who cares which dealers sell it?
Our Ford dealership is the oldest one in the state, and is the only new-car dealer in our city of less than 10,000. They actually do very well.
Jordan 2:04AM (7/10/2007)
This is stupid.
What makes Ford think the dealers are not trying to sell as many F-150 as they already can? I thought the dealers were going broke and have been trying to sell as many as anything anyway to stay alive?
This is very insulting if I was a dealer. This makes it seems like we sit on our ass and not sell hard unless we are threatened by blocking future models if we dont perform. Every dealer is trying its best regardless of incentives and doesn't need a gun to their head during these hard times because the Ford brass wants to brag. With 4600 dealers and an allocation of only 50 cars all this does is hurt morale.
Jon 10:30AM (7/11/2007)
@ Jordan:
I think what Ford wants its dealers to do is convice customers to buy the F150 INSTEAD OF other vehicles.
"I'm thinkin' 'bout a Ranger." "How about an F150? It can do a lot more". "OK."
"Hi, I want a Sport Trac." "OK, but why don't we look at this F150 first. It's like a twin size bed compared to a king, and you can get it for about the same price." "Sounds good to me."
Not that it's that easy, but you get the idea.
Devin 9:21PM (7/09/2007)
While I hate the idea of incentives to move vehicles when you could just produce less and make more profit, I can definetely understand why Ford is loading up the F150. This is a great incentive for dealers, but I think a better incentive (at least for the customers) is to offer a free iPhone. We all know that everyone wants one.
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Logic 9:40PM (7/09/2007)
Devin, it's not that simple to build less for more. You see the union workers get paid whether they work or not. Ford is not doing well, we all know this. However, the Fusion, Edge, Mustang, New Escape are in solid demand. The F-Series is the best selling vehicle in America by a wide margin. A wider margin than any swng in sales the incentives can create.
Guenther 9:46PM (7/09/2007)
Building fewer vehicles is just not an option when you have people that will get paid one way or another. It's a bitter reality we'll be chewing on in SE MI for a long time. There's light at the end of the tunnel, but it's a long, dark, gloomy one
HotRodzNKustoms 10:49PM (7/09/2007)
I hope they plan to increase their production rate since at 50 KR's a year it would take 20 years to build all 1000 of them.
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Greg 11:17PM (7/09/2007)
$3.30 for a gallon of gas... I don't know about you guys but it is killing me to fill up my Pacifica for $58 bucks.
My buddy down in Georgia has a '97 F150 .... he was grumbling on the phone with me last week... ''' $90.00 ''' to fill it up.
$90 Bucks - I mean come on.... and Ford is still pushing these vehicles as if gas was $1.50
And these Global Economic Advisors on CNBC / Bloomberg are calling for higher prices in the future.
Good Luck Ford.... with $2,500 mortgages.... $8,000 property taxes..... $250 bucks a week for groceries for a family of 4.... I don't see people taking out a 6 yr note on a F-150 4x4 which will cost them $500 a month and then another $400 a month for gasoline.
Time to adjust your projected sales is all I can say.
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why not the LS2/LS7? 11:45PM (7/09/2007)
Don't sweat the 500KR, dealers, I'm sure Ford will announce 3 or 4 faster Mustangs before the end of the month.
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Johnny Rocket 7:37PM (7/10/2007)
Sigh...another overpriced Mustang...
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Chris 1:46AM (7/10/2007)
That sure is a sweet ride. Nice styling, performance, rarity, value, an awesome sticker price...too bad it only benefits the dealers. I called up every dealer around me after the initial press release for this machine. None of them knew anything about the vehicle so it took some time for them to get back to me regarding my purchase request. The best I received was an opportunity for my name to be put into a drawing to purchase the car for $xx,000 over sticker.
Being in business and an auto enthusiast, I was truly unimpressed with this response. As a customer (who owns a fleet of F series trucks and an SVT vehicle) the dealerships have effectively stated that my money isn't green enough. Now I do have a firm grasp of how markets play out, but here is my problem with this scenario...
John Yuppy (x 1,000) purchases this ~$55k sticker vehicle for an easy $90k. The dealership takes in roughly $40k and ford takes in about $50k. One of those numbers is almost purely profit while the other is obviously not. If this vehicle is sold via prevailing practices, then it does not benefit Ford to have dealers price gouging (or 'market adjusting'). Ford does not make any more money on the deals, nor do they sell more of the vehicle as it is limited production. I really wish that Ford would just mark the price tag with something more in line with the price they will sell at. I realize they don't want another GT fiasco with vehicles sitting on lots, but myself, J. Q. Public, would much rather provide to the company producing the vehicle and pay to hold the value of the vehicle, rather than pay a 'market adjustment', a gouge, or for the privilege to buy that warm and fuzzy feeling that the COPO, Shelby, and Yenko owners had to wait 20-30 years to truly feel.
The excess funds paid to the dealer have a tendency to get lost in translation when selling the vehicle as the would be buyer goes from attempting to purchasing a $55,000 vehicle to a $90,000 vehicle and the seller’s only excuse is ‘Well, I paid too much.’
My only hope is that the next special edition Mustang, the next special edition to best all other special editions (again), be not named after a prior special edition from before I was born. So maybe, just maybe, I will be able to gladly pay full sticker price for those warm ‘n fuzzies.
p.s. Anyone else remember when the top of the line Mustang…that one with the ~$33,000 sticker that could be had for under MSRP, the one that after all these years still performs almost as well as the GT500…could actually be purchased by walking into a dealership? Those were the days…
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Igor Holas 9:33AM (7/10/2007)
No you are taking this wrong ..
it goes like this .. having the dibs on the KR means that the dealer can count on about $10k of pure profit if not more .. that means that they can take off additional money off of other cars - the F150 - and they will still be in the black ..
This is very simply dealer cash incentive in drag.
Igor
mblommel 11:28AM (7/10/2007)
Who cares? It's a hunk of crap anyway. I'd buy a Z06 or 911 all day long over this marked up POS and I wouldn't have to contend with retarded Ford stealership nitwits.
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Johnny B 11:53AM (7/10/2007)
You are an idiot...And by the way, who give a rats ass what you think???
HughJorgan 12:16PM (7/10/2007)
I was on the list for a GT500 the day it was announced in NYC. Fast forward the year and a half and on a random dealer visit I see "my" GT500 on the sales floor with velvet ropes around it. No calls, nada. Oh, and a $30k side sticker bringing it to over $74k.
I left that dealer PISSED after over a year of lusting and reading GT500 story after story, blog after blog vowing I wouldn't buy into it any more.
3 months later (and 2 weeks ago), I purchased a car as fast or faster that, is a V8 beast, and even a convertible- the SLK55 AMG.
I am not a 'vette person and thoses dorks had my money- they lost it and to the germans no less.
The car is scary fast.
Johnny Rocket 2:48PM (7/10/2007)
Well DUH--anyone with common sense would buy an SLK55 AMG (or, in my case, a Cayman S) over a GT500. But the GT500 is built to contend more with the likes of an M3 than a roadster.
Mr. Oak 12:34PM (7/10/2007)
"F-Series is up 45,000 units on the all-new Silverado"
Now, we all know that the new GMT900 platform is available in two distinctly different models, the GMC Sierra and the Chevrolet Silverado.
My question is, how does the F-150 measure up against the GMT900 truck lines?
Ahhhh, A little research:"In 2005..Combined, Chevy/GMC bested Ford by about 34,000 units."
Ford has been given a free pass on this technicality for a very long time. The reality is GM may actually be selling more trucks than Ford in this segment.
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"Sales of the GMT800 line were incredibly strong. The pickups and SUVs regularly sold 1.8 million vehicles annually, possibly netting GM as much as $9 billion in net profit."
Year Total Sales
2001 1,569,198
2002 1,672,804
2003 1,810,340
2004 1,704,239
2005 1,491,084
All figures obtained from Wikipedia.
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Ligor 12:45PM (7/10/2007)
SLK55AMG - great choise,
this Mustang will not mean much as they have like 500 different versions coming out.
soon no one will know which is what so what's the point
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KT 2:24PM (7/10/2007)
Ford states that they sell more F-Series than Chevy. And it's true. They have never said they sell more F-Series than General Motors. It's a brand against brand comparison.
Also, Ford sold more F-Series in the month of June than Chevy and GMC combined.
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