A crucial element in Ford’s recovery is the once-healthy market for big trucks. Ford still offers three 2009 F-150 premium models: The Lariat, the King Ranch, and the top of the line Platinum; but ‘fashion buyers’—guys who buy big Ford trucks for show, not because they ever haul anything with them—fell away in record numbers when gas prices skyrocketed this past summer. Commercial buyers, constrained by the economic downturn and the credit crunch, have also been holding back.
How bad will it get for Ford? “With so many economic headwinds, we believe the pickup segment will bottom out at 1.7-million units in the next two years,” says Joe Barker, senior manager, global sales analysis for CSM. “That’s down nearly 40 percent from 2007.” If gasoline prices stay low, hybrid and compact high-mileage vehicles may not sell well either, prompting many industry analysts to forecast a much smaller U.S. auto manufacturing sector in the years to come, no matter what vehicles end up on the assembly lines. Meanwhile, anyone in the market for a new Ford truck right now is likely to get a pretty good deal.
Tags: ford f 150, prestige, Sales