Yesterday was Black Tuesday for the American auto industry. TTAC's bloggers worked their fingers to the bone trying to keep up with an abandoned airport's worth of bad news. And still we didn't get it all. Anyway, it’s official. For the first time in sixteen years (since December 1992), a car has outsold the ubiquitous Ford F-series pickup trucks. Make that, FOUR cars. Last month, [Edmund's] "seismic shift" sent buyers into Toyota and Honda dealerships seeking fuel efficient sedans, rather than gas guzzling pickup trucks and SUVs. The Toyotas Corolla and Camry, and Hondas Civic and Accord, each outsold Ford's venerable tpickup. Feebly trying to explain F-series’ fifth place finish, Ford’s head sales honcho Jim Farley said, “May was a watershed month. We are, as an industry, catching up with the breathtaking choices customers are now making.” Meanwhile, this simple pistonhead asks: how this could be such a big surprise to a FoMoCo executive?
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I drive a Jeep to work each day, and I do love being able to see over all those small cars ahead of me, and run them over if need be. ;)
I think it’s a surprise because until May, production (and to some extent, sales) was not far off from previous years, despite the fact that the customer base was getting ripped apart by the economic downturn centered in the housing market. Maybe the D2.8 figured they could whistle their way past the graveyard.
But the housing market has not recovered, and $4 gas finally hit home in May. If nothing else, May will go down as the month everyone in Detroit finally woke up.
I remain in the camp that believes that Ford and GM still have a solid chance to recover, although never to the US market shares they became accustomed to.
But I wonder what would happen if Honda could produce as many Fits, Civics and those upcoming Hybrids as the market demands. Then the vehicles that are keeping the D2.8 dealers in business — Focus, Caliber, Cobalt, Aveo — would be ground into dust.
The reason this is such a big surprise to a FoMoCo executive, because they promote the ones who haven’t got a Scooby Doo.
I have great respect for Alan Mulally and I believe he will do great things at Ford, but he needs to get rid of Mark Fields and a number of other pointless managers (True example: there is a lady who works at a high level in Ford called Sonia Shrank and her job title is…..are you ready for this? “Ford Brand DNA manager“! What the hell kind of pointless job title is that?!). Mark Fields’ track record is abysmal. Firstly, his “great turnaround” at Mazda. What is mentioned less often about that, is the ground work was laid out by previous management BEFORE, Mr Fields’ arrival. Then, there’s his tenure at PAG, which still didn’t turn a profit and his stint at Ford Americas, which saw him oversee the market share loss and chaos that Ford are in right now. And yet, despite all this, Mr Fields is being touted as the next CEO of Ford.
Meanwhile, Lewis Booth, head of Ford Europe, has continually brought healthy profits to FoMoCo, has wonderful products to sell (Ford Mondeo and Ford Focus Cabriolet) and has brought the “Ford” marque on a respectable level with Toyota, Nissan and VW in Europe. And he’s an outside chance of getting the CEO’s job at Ford!
Madness!
Anyway, back to the F-150. It was only a matter of time before it was supplanted as number one in the United States. Fuel prices couldn’t sustain it there forever. Don’t expect this to be a blip in the calendar, either. Oil prices are holding steady at $125 per barrel and OPEC aren’t increasing production any time soon. However, if Petrol does come down by at least $2 per gallon, then maybe there will be an uptick in F-150 sales. But it’s highly unlikely.
But don’t panic, people. It was beaten by 3 American made cars.
So you see? Americans CAN build a car that Americans want to buy. :O)
The “seismic shift” was the sudden spike of $1.00/gallon in gas prices. Prices had been edging up for years, but April prices hikes was very sudden. The Big 3 all have more fuel efficent cars coming, What they didn’t see coming was such a quick change.
dwford,
I agree with your analysis, but argue that Ford and GM have more fuel efficient cars on the way, but we don’t hear much from Chrysler along those lines.
Let’s see….by the numbers: 2005 was the high in world wide oil exports, 2006 was -1.1%, 2007 -2.2%…(EIA data)
Oil Reserves does not equal oil production, and oil production, does not equal oil exports.
I saw this coming in 2002 with my last car purchase, why didn’t the big 2.8?
I love spending $80 to fill up my Jeep and worry that at higher speeds while I’m driving to work it might tip over if I’d have to make a sudden emergency move – just so I can sit in traffic and see over another car and have the smug “this thing can off road look” but right now I’m not doing it but I can if I wanted to and I’m daydreaming about it b/c it can and – ooops gotta move up another 10 feet and look over that Expedition – oh wait I can’t look around it…that’s not fair I own a Jeep and you’ll never understand why I drive such a poorly designed on road vehicle on the road to work every day.
– brought to you by your typical smug Jeep owner who drives the vehicle mainly to/from work to pick up kids from soccer but once went to Jeep Camp for a weekend adventure.
$4/gallon seems to be the magic psychological tipping point for many US drivers. Maybe it is the shock of having the pay-at-the-pump meters automatically stop at $50 or $75 and realizing that you haven’t even filled up yet!
I once went to a Camp Jeep weekend, as a journo, and it was basically a traffic jam in the woods. Lots of orthodontists and CPAs wearing “If You Can’t Run With the Big Dogs Stay on the Porch” teeshirts, and none of them had the slightest idea how to drive off road.
About Mark Fields: I can certainly buy that he might have just been in the right place at the right time with Mazda; but I don’t know. Certainly the results at PAG were not good; but how much of that was his fault? I wonder how much of the resentment of Fields is that he looks too good. Given the short tenure that execs seem to have at their various stations on the way up, and all the other fingers in the pie at each stage, it’s impossible for those on the outside to assess their performance until they get to the top, and then it’s too late.
But I assume Mulally has accurately assessed Fields, and the turnover in the top ranks at Ford since Mulally arrived shows he’s not averse to showing people the door one way or another. So I’m not worried about Fields’ performance hurting Ford.
@ jaje :
June 4th, 2008 at 10:03 am
Are you angry that Airhen is happy with his purchase, that you don’t enjoy your purchase, that Airhen doesn’t share your worldview, or some combination of the three?
Does anyone know which car was the last one to lead a month? I’m guessing the Accord, but maybe Taurus?
@ Mj0lnir:
Nope – I just made a random thought post same as Airhen did. Don’t read into it too much – this is just an Internet post.
Regarding Mark Fields.
Obviously, the source for all of Mark Fields power was in his mullet. His performance has severly diminished since he cut it.
Actually, the title should have read:
“To tell you the truth, in all this excrement, I’ve kinda lost track myself”
Mj0lnir :
@ jaje :
June 4th, 2008 at 10:03 am
Are you angry that Airhen is happy with his purchase, that you don’t enjoy your purchase, that Airhen doesn’t share your worldview, or some combination of the three?
Airhen mentality (see “I can run tem over if needed be”) it’s just stupid, infantile and plain dangerous. Did I mention stupid?
I am really pissed to see this kind of thinking in a lot of drivers of big SUVs/trucks out there. I am just happy the gas price is driving this mentality to extinction indirectly by killing the SUVs/Trucks market. I love Jaje post as an Airhen rebuttal.