Ford Starts Production of Key F-150 Pickup Truck
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Ford Starts Production of Key F-150 Pickup Truck
Ford Starts Production of Key F-150 Pickup Truck
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,89048,00.html
Tuesday, June 10, 2003
NORFOLK, Va. — Ford Motor Co. (F) launched production on Tuesday of its all-new F-150 pickup truck (search), a product vital to the bottom line of the automaker as it celebrates its centennial this week and struggles to recover from a profit slump.
The F-Series has been the best-selling vehicle in the United States for more than two decades, and Wall Street analysts say it drives more than half of Ford's profits.
"This is a make-or-break for Ford. This is without a doubt the most crucial product that they've got coming in the last five years and going forward for the next five years," said independent automotive consultant MaryAnn Keller. "This has to succeed. They have to make it work."
While the new version has been heralded as bigger and better than its predecessor, analysts say it is also at least $1,000 more expensive to build. And that's a cardinal sin in today's auto industry, where design and engineering processes are aimed at taking costs out, not adding them in.
To compensate for the cost, Ford, which is trying to recover from a profit slump, may boost the sticker price of the F-150. But that could make it difficult to keep selling more than 800,000 of the F-Series pickup trucks a year, especially in a market where Detroit's Big Three automakers have been unable to sell anything lately without huge consumer incentives.
But Ford Chairman and Chief Executive Bill Ford Jr. (search), who heralded the F-150 on Tuesday as "the most successful automobile of all-time," said at a launch ceremony here that the automaker was committed to selling up to 1 million of the F-Series pickup trucks annually.
"While we have a lot of tough competition out there, none of them can stack up to this," Ford said. "In its last 50 years, there's been no vehicle more important to Ford Motor Co, ... it will continue to play a central role in our success."
For its continuing success, he has to ensure the new truck has not just pizzazz and a host of new customer features, but also what Keller calls "flawless perfection."
That's a tall order of business for any automaker. Ford, which has many cars and trucks to celebrate as it marks its 100th anniversary this month, has been pulling out all the stops to make the new F-150 another American classic, however.
Ford plans to add new F-150 production in two more plants, in Kansas City and Dearborn, Michigan. Even if Ford makes the pickup near perfect, the marketplace has changed dramatically since Ford launched the outgoing version of the F-150 seven years ago.
"It's a different competitive landscape," said Michael Robinet, an analyst with CSM Worldwide, a Michigan-based automotive research and consulting firm.
Unlike in the mid-1990s, the F-150 faces tough competitors from General Motors Corp. (GM) and the Chrysler side of DaimlerChrysler AG (DCX), along with new offerings due soon from Toyota Motor Corp. (search) and Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. (search) .
To differentiate its new truck, a struggle for any manufacturer, Ford is offering the industry's widest variety of body and trim configurations, with five different F-150 packages featuring three different box lengths and two distinct box styles. All will come with four doors, of one size or another.
Even the base model regular cab version of the truck, which goes on sale this fall, features 13 inches of storage space behind the front seat, meanwhile. And that alone could give it an edge over the standard pickup offerings from GM, Ford's leading rival.
But given the cutthroat nature of the industry, and Detroit's intensifying price war, analysts say Ford may put profit-gouging incentives on its new pickup, to help spur sales soon after its launch. And that could mean it will no longer be the cash cow it once was for the world's No. 2 automaker.
"The bottom line is that even if they sell 800,000 (per year), they're going to make less per unit on them than they did on the current version," said Keller
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,89048,00.html
Tuesday, June 10, 2003
NORFOLK, Va. — Ford Motor Co. (F) launched production on Tuesday of its all-new F-150 pickup truck (search), a product vital to the bottom line of the automaker as it celebrates its centennial this week and struggles to recover from a profit slump.
The F-Series has been the best-selling vehicle in the United States for more than two decades, and Wall Street analysts say it drives more than half of Ford's profits.
"This is a make-or-break for Ford. This is without a doubt the most crucial product that they've got coming in the last five years and going forward for the next five years," said independent automotive consultant MaryAnn Keller. "This has to succeed. They have to make it work."
While the new version has been heralded as bigger and better than its predecessor, analysts say it is also at least $1,000 more expensive to build. And that's a cardinal sin in today's auto industry, where design and engineering processes are aimed at taking costs out, not adding them in.
To compensate for the cost, Ford, which is trying to recover from a profit slump, may boost the sticker price of the F-150. But that could make it difficult to keep selling more than 800,000 of the F-Series pickup trucks a year, especially in a market where Detroit's Big Three automakers have been unable to sell anything lately without huge consumer incentives.
But Ford Chairman and Chief Executive Bill Ford Jr. (search), who heralded the F-150 on Tuesday as "the most successful automobile of all-time," said at a launch ceremony here that the automaker was committed to selling up to 1 million of the F-Series pickup trucks annually.
"While we have a lot of tough competition out there, none of them can stack up to this," Ford said. "In its last 50 years, there's been no vehicle more important to Ford Motor Co, ... it will continue to play a central role in our success."
For its continuing success, he has to ensure the new truck has not just pizzazz and a host of new customer features, but also what Keller calls "flawless perfection."
That's a tall order of business for any automaker. Ford, which has many cars and trucks to celebrate as it marks its 100th anniversary this month, has been pulling out all the stops to make the new F-150 another American classic, however.
Ford plans to add new F-150 production in two more plants, in Kansas City and Dearborn, Michigan. Even if Ford makes the pickup near perfect, the marketplace has changed dramatically since Ford launched the outgoing version of the F-150 seven years ago.
"It's a different competitive landscape," said Michael Robinet, an analyst with CSM Worldwide, a Michigan-based automotive research and consulting firm.
Unlike in the mid-1990s, the F-150 faces tough competitors from General Motors Corp. (GM) and the Chrysler side of DaimlerChrysler AG (DCX), along with new offerings due soon from Toyota Motor Corp. (search) and Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. (search) .
To differentiate its new truck, a struggle for any manufacturer, Ford is offering the industry's widest variety of body and trim configurations, with five different F-150 packages featuring three different box lengths and two distinct box styles. All will come with four doors, of one size or another.
Even the base model regular cab version of the truck, which goes on sale this fall, features 13 inches of storage space behind the front seat, meanwhile. And that alone could give it an edge over the standard pickup offerings from GM, Ford's leading rival.
But given the cutthroat nature of the industry, and Detroit's intensifying price war, analysts say Ford may put profit-gouging incentives on its new pickup, to help spur sales soon after its launch. And that could mean it will no longer be the cash cow it once was for the world's No. 2 automaker.
"The bottom line is that even if they sell 800,000 (per year), they're going to make less per unit on them than they did on the current version," said Keller
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