Ford Motor company has bumped the prices of its domestic vehicles by an average of $198 fleet-wide, bringing the overall model year increase to $502 per car, truck, van, and utility vehicle. The only vehicles not effected by the latest increase are the Lincoln Town Car, the E-Series vans, and the soon to be defunct Lincoln Mark LT. While half a grand sounds like a lot of money, it only represents a 1.8-percent increase over last year's overall costs, which is a full percentage point less than the average inflation in the past year. While nobody likes to see prices go up, it's hard to fault Ford for attempting to keep up with the financial times. The big question is whether customers will be willing to pay for the hike in a soft car market, or if Ford will need to put more cash on the hood to move metal.[Source: Automotive News - Sub. Req.]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jerk Face @ Jan 25th 2008 7:42PM
My $25,000 car now costs $25,198!?!?
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!111one
Steven @ Jan 25th 2008 8:05PM
OMG $4.00/month on a 5-year! Could have bought a gallon of gas for that...
C.W. @ Jan 25th 2008 8:59PM
it's still less than GM's price hike.. funny how that isnt mentioned in the article...
Jackie B. @ Jan 25th 2008 10:08PM
$200! I guess I should wait till the summer for all those fat cash incentives to come my way.
Reality Check @ Jan 25th 2008 11:13PM
If I was Ford I would go Higher! What do they have to loose? With the dollar do weak it must be killing them when they import any part.... Just glad your not soaking up the money like the Germans, now that must hurt the bottom line.
Matt @ Jan 26th 2008 12:07AM
Nothing...their sales suck as it is.
John @ Jan 26th 2008 12:10AM
Change title, should read:
Ford bumps pricing an average of $198 - nobody notices
Steve B. @ Jan 26th 2008 3:52AM
1.8% increase following a year with 4.1% inflation? That would mean that, in constant dollars, Ford dropped all of their prices to approximately 97.8% of last years prices.
If $502 is 1.8%, the average cost of a Ford vehicle is right around $27889. 97.8% of 27889 is $27275.
So, Ford is decreasing their prices by around $600 in constant dollars. Divided by 60 payments, that's around $10 bucks a month in your pocket (expect either 0% or extremely low-interest financing to be available as the Fed keeps dropping the rates)
So, Steven, it looks like Ford is BUYING you around 3 tanks of gas each month. Just enough to go pick up your unemployment check as the economy tanks...
Steve B. @ Jan 26th 2008 3:53AM
Er, three GALLONS of gas. Crap it's late!
blogged to death @ Jan 26th 2008 9:22AM
Why are the raising prices on the cars when they have substantial rebates > $500 on almost every car? I thought they were bring down sticker prices to in effect eliminate having the huge rebates or 0% everyone with a pulse financing. So instead of giving the average $1-2k rebate on a $25k car or $3-4k rebate on an SUV they could have lowered the price of the car $800+, took away the rebate and all the cheapening incentives and called it value price reduction.
D.L. @ Jan 28th 2008 9:26AM
The problem isn't just a MSRP increase, but option prices usually increase as well at the same time or multiple times during the year. So while it may only be $500/year more for MSRP, that sunroof option that you must get-to get alloy wheels that you must get-to get heated mirrors-etc...all went up about $50 or more each the last year themselves. I think that's when people really feel the rise after the MSRP is "built".
fuzzy @ Feb 1st 2008 7:21PM
Just what they needed to do to sell more cars, right?
Protip, Ford: Honda and Toyota can raise their prices because they have earned the reputation for building good cars. Until you do that, then you can't raise prices. Stop relying on chest beating Mustang drivers, or bluejeans F-150 buyers, or your few good European cars that never make it to America (the good Ford Focus, Mondeo, etc) to justify any money you are making.