Ford increasing prices again:

emmell

This will be the 4th increase, so much for the scrappage sheme, how many manufacturers of other goods dare put their prices up in a recession.
ML.

ukjoel

They dont have much choice - Strategically selling a car at a loss isnt good business and thats what they have been doing for years.

Last year when the other big two almost went under Ford decided that they needed to be more profitable.

Its a buyers market so if its too pricey look elsewhere. The retail price and the actual selling price with Fords are very different things. Fleet discounts are significant and dealer discounts as well so shop around. When there are 500 dealers in the UK all selling the same car there will be deals to be had.

Imagine if every branch of Comet could negotiate their own price and deliver your new TV to you. Thats the way it is in the automotive world.

emmell

So you're saying the 2.5% increase next month is the difference between profit and loss.
What I'm saying is most companies in this recession are either having to hold prices or cut prices eg. retail, manufacturing (not automotive), house builders etc., etc.
No one else (except the banks) and the car manufacturers have had help from the government. I don't think for one minute if the industry hadn't been propped up by the scrappage scheme they would have had so many price increases, they would have had to compete like other companies on a level playing field.
ML.

FelinePrincess

I don't know if this is the case with all the ford price increases but sometimes there is nothing like a price increase to boost sales!

It sounds stupid but if you think about it, anyone that wants to buy a ford is going to rush to get their order in before price increase (I did, and so did a few other customers I spoke to when I was waiting in dealerships), then they will have another rush to avoid the vat increase and then they have new plates in march to look forward to. I know it doesn't seem very fair to the customers but what choice do we have if we want a new car? And I didn't even want a new car to begin with but I ended up getting one as all the decent used ones were so overpriced!

It's a shame that the goverment only seems to help out big companies not the taxpayer!

Lemonade_Pockets

1) A Companies main objective is to make profit.
2) Ford of Europe are not yet making a profit out of selling cars
3) The scrappage scheme in the UK should be revenue neutral. - The reason it took so long to be adpoted in the UK was that the MFR's had to persuade our government that it was. They eventually agreed on the basis it that it was.
4) Have you notice how expensive everything is in Europe recently?
5) Almost all MFR's that sell car's in the Uk incur their costs in a forgein currency.
6) Its not just Ford that has put prices up.
7) Your summation about price increases or lack thereof if there hadn't been a scrappage scheme is probably incorrect. (If any MFR in 2010 lowers prices, after scrappage ends i'll take that back)

Having said all that i do agree it is counter intuative but MFR's have learnt (some the hardway see GM and chrysler) That chasing volume through price reduction does not = sustainability.
If demand falls next year i do not expect to see massive price cuts (by which i mean in list price). MFR's instead will simply readjust production to meet demand. This will mean serious job cuts.
GM has started this ball rolling with 9000 Jobs to go from Opel, and at least few thousand in Saab assuming it gets wound up.

The plus side to all of this is that if prices keep increasing on new cars our Part Exchanges will all be worth a lot more.
Dear Mr MINI please can you put your prices up 50% - Thank you.

Inactive

Don't worry, once the Scrappage Scheme ends and the market gets back to some form of normality, Ford and others will be forced to cease the greed.

They are all simply milking an opportunity.

Premier_2

Lemonade_Pockets wrote: »

...2) Ford of Europe are not yet making a profit out of selling cars....

...DEARBORN, Mich., Nov. 2, 2009...Ford's North American operations posted a pre-tax operating profit of $357 million, its first quarterly profit since the first quarter of 2005. Ford South America, Ford Europe and Ford Asia Pacific Africa also posted pre-tax operating profits in the third quarter...

Europe: For the third quarter, Ford Europe reported a pre-tax operating profit of $193 million, compared with a profit of $69 million a year ago. The improvement was more than explained by structural cost reductions, lower material costs and favorable net pricing, offset partially by unfavorable volume and mix and exchange. Third quarter revenue was $7.6 billion, down from $9.7 billion a year ago...

...

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/11/02/ford-posts-1-billion-in-profit-surprisingly-good-third-quarter/

Lemonade_Pockets

Premier.

Can i suggest you analyse the figures in a bit more detail. The 193 million was mainly earnings from Subsiduaries E.g. Tekfor, Getrag etc which Ford have a stake in. Some of it was from Ford credit all seperate entities from Ford.

North America is not really relevant since non of the cars produced their are available from Ford dealerships in the UK.

I repeat Ford of Europe are not yet making a profit out of making or selling cars.

lawrie28

Is the price increase for december or january. 2.5% VAT increase in january will increase the prices don't forget.

Premier_2

Lemonade_Pockets wrote: »

Premier.

Can i suggest you analyse the figures in a bit more detail. The 193 million was mainly earnings from Subsiduaries E.g. Tekfor, Getrag etc which Ford have a stake in. Some of it was from Ford credit all seperate entities from Ford.

North America is not really relevant since non of the cars produced their are available from Ford dealerships in the UK.

I repeat Ford of Europe are not yet making a profit out of making or selling cars.

Keep repeating it if you like.

It's very difficult to break out specifics from Ford accounts ... I know how much work goes into them, cross charging, etc.

Ford primarily exists to make & sell cars(vehicles). The figures above reflect that.
If Ford didn't make and sell cars, the remainder wouldn't even exist in the first place

(I don't think Ford Credit figures are reflected in FoE figures ... but I might be wrong on that without checking fully)

In 2008, Lewis Booth Executive Vice President (at the time) responsible for Ford of Europe, Volvo Car Corporation and Ford Export Operations and Global Growth Initiatives, gave a presentation at the Geneva Motor Show stating

"Ford of Europe is solidly profitable"

http://www.ford.com/doc/ir_20080304_merryl_lynch_global_conf_slides.pdf (slide 11)

Lemonade_Pockets

I'm not getting into semantics and yes i agree in the first half of 2008 Ford EU was doing well. But that was before a Fan and a Large chunk of !!!!!! had a coming together......look what happened in the second half of the year.

I think Ford Credits figures are included in the 193 but the other subsiduaries definitely are. The later are separate companies completely (there is no "cross charging as you refer to it because ford would lose at least 59% of it so it would be pointless) they are just included in Ford's Figures because of US Gaap.

If i can find the info is publicly available on the net i'll send you a link but i promise you Ford is currently not making money out of its core business which is producing and selling Car's. Hence my original points.