The same scenario appears to have taken place with Ford's new Freestyle crossover, where a little late blooming sees its sales up a
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| Sales of Ford's new Freestyle crossover are up a staggering 63 percent over November 2004, resulting in year-to-date sales of 5,342 units (as of October 31, 2005) which make it number one in Canada's midsize crossover segment. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press) |
staggering 63 percent over November 2004. The resulting year-to-date sales 5,342 of Freestyles (as of October 31, 2005) make it number one in Canada's midsize crossover segment, ahead of 4,373 Dodge Magnums (if the bold LX car can be considered a crossover and not merely a wagon), 4,184 Nissan Muranos, 4,004 Buick Rendezvous', 3,860 Toyota Highlanders (which includes 460 Highlander Hybrids) and 3,593 Chrysler Pacificas. What is more surprising is the retail to fleet comparison.
As a quick refresher, retail is when a dealer sells a vehicle to an individual customer or small business, while fleet sales represent volume sales of any number of vehicles to a government agency, such as a city or police force, or a large business such as a taxi company, courier company, delivery service,
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| Due to its lower than average fleet sales, purposely orchestrated by Ford, it should come as some comfort to Freestyle buyers that their new crossover should fare better than most when they decide to trade it in or sell it on the open market. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press) |
or simply to a firm that buys company cars for its employees, or the biggest users of new vehicles, car rental companies. While selling fleet is good for business initially, when large buyers flood the used car market by selling off their fleets it can hurt the resale value of any given vehicle line on the whole, making it more difficult for individual buyers to get the most for their cars when it comes time to resell.
So, it should come as some comfort to Freestyle buyers that their new crossover should fare better than most when it they decide to trade it in or sell it on the open market. According to the year-to-date stats I have on the aforementioned group of crossovers, only 822 of the 5,342 Freestyles or 15 percent sold found their way into company fleets, leaving 4,136 units or about 85 percent in the open market.
