Updated F-150 Should Prove Popular with Ford's Traditional Customers
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| Ford's new 2004 F-150 may be offered with enticing incentives despite being an all-new model. (Photo: Ford Motor) |
According to The Wall Street Journal, Ford Motor Co. may be offering discounts on its redesigned 2004 F-150 pickup when it arrives in dealer showrooms this summer.
The Journal quoted Steve Lyons, head of the automaker's U.S. Ford Division, stating that his firm may offer dealer incentives, a low percentage leasing program or some APR to entice owners to move up to the new model.
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| The new F-150 not only improves interior styling but its tactile quality, or perceived quality will even impress European car fans. (Photo: Ford Motor) |
"Even if you have to spend $1,000 a unit on the new one, you're still $2,000 ahead of where you are," Lyons told the newspaper. "So your margins still improve pretty well." Ford is offering rebates of as much as $3,000 on the current F-150.
This aggressive direction breaks from tradition. Up until now carmakers usually have only used incentives to liquidate slower selling models or move high-demand vehicles coming to the end of their 'shelf' life. But the past is the past and now all automakers find themselves in an incentive driven market, a change to the previous status quo that isn't about to revert back soon, maybe never at all.