STONE_COLD
31/08/2005, 13h31
Il n'est pas encore rendu dans les concessions (du moins j'en ai pas vu encore) que Ford offre un rabais sur l'Explorer 2006. :?
La hausse du prix de l'essence et un prix de base vraiment trop haut ont surement poussé Ford à agir de la sorte.
DETROIT -- Just weeks after making the redesigned 2006 Explorer its poster child for value pricing, Ford Motor Co. is slapping a $2,000 cash rebate on the hood.
Meanwhile, Ford executives are debating whether to continue the company's employee pricing promotion past Sept. 6. That issue grew more complicated last week when General Motors announced it would extend its employee pricing through the end of September.
Ford is weighing several other incentive ideas, including free gasoline and extended warranties. It all points to a sense of uncertainty at Ford as the company prepares to make the leap to value pricing - the notion of setting sticker prices closer to transaction prices and moving away from big rebates.
CEO Bill Ford acknowledges the dilemma. He says his top sales executives are huddling with dealers to determine what to do next.
"We learned that customers like the no-haggle process," he says. "We also learned they like the notion that nobody's going to get a better deal somewhere than they're getting. So we're working internally … (on) how do we incorporate some of those elements into a plan going forward."
But he said employee pricing can't be sustained long term.
Now is the time
The company's top sales analyst says the transition to value pricing will be easier if employee pricing is used to clear out 2005 models.
"If there was ever a time to try to make value pricing work, this is the time," says George Pipas, Ford's sales analysis and reporting manager. "If the economy was weak, and if you had a glut of old models, you wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell of implementing value pricing."
But Pipas says it's too much to expect the industry to jump straight from employee discounts to value pricing.
"Hey, we've been enticing consumers and selling the deal for a period of four years, and to think we can move from where we were to where we want to be overnight, it's realistically too much to expect," he says. "Understandably, people have some concerns. But I think you can make progress. I think this is the best environment you can have."
So why tack a $2,000 rebate onto the re-engineered 2006 Explorer even before it arrives in dealer showrooms?
Pipas says it probably was because Ford has too much production capacity in the SUV segment.
Competitive pressure also is a factor. Ford needed to put extra cash on the hood to ensure the new model gets off to a good start, says spokesman Jim Cain.
Even so, the Explorer rebate departs from the value-pricing model Ford says it wants to implement. Ford already had rolled back sticker prices on the 2006 Explorer by as much as $3,900. Executives previously said they wanted to emulate the approach used for the 2005 Ford Five Hundred sedan and Freestyle sport wagon, which debuted last fall with moderate sticker prices. Ford then held off on cash rebates for several months.
La hausse du prix de l'essence et un prix de base vraiment trop haut ont surement poussé Ford à agir de la sorte.
DETROIT -- Just weeks after making the redesigned 2006 Explorer its poster child for value pricing, Ford Motor Co. is slapping a $2,000 cash rebate on the hood.
Meanwhile, Ford executives are debating whether to continue the company's employee pricing promotion past Sept. 6. That issue grew more complicated last week when General Motors announced it would extend its employee pricing through the end of September.
Ford is weighing several other incentive ideas, including free gasoline and extended warranties. It all points to a sense of uncertainty at Ford as the company prepares to make the leap to value pricing - the notion of setting sticker prices closer to transaction prices and moving away from big rebates.
CEO Bill Ford acknowledges the dilemma. He says his top sales executives are huddling with dealers to determine what to do next.
"We learned that customers like the no-haggle process," he says. "We also learned they like the notion that nobody's going to get a better deal somewhere than they're getting. So we're working internally … (on) how do we incorporate some of those elements into a plan going forward."
But he said employee pricing can't be sustained long term.
Now is the time
The company's top sales analyst says the transition to value pricing will be easier if employee pricing is used to clear out 2005 models.
"If there was ever a time to try to make value pricing work, this is the time," says George Pipas, Ford's sales analysis and reporting manager. "If the economy was weak, and if you had a glut of old models, you wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell of implementing value pricing."
But Pipas says it's too much to expect the industry to jump straight from employee discounts to value pricing.
"Hey, we've been enticing consumers and selling the deal for a period of four years, and to think we can move from where we were to where we want to be overnight, it's realistically too much to expect," he says. "Understandably, people have some concerns. But I think you can make progress. I think this is the best environment you can have."
So why tack a $2,000 rebate onto the re-engineered 2006 Explorer even before it arrives in dealer showrooms?
Pipas says it probably was because Ford has too much production capacity in the SUV segment.
Competitive pressure also is a factor. Ford needed to put extra cash on the hood to ensure the new model gets off to a good start, says spokesman Jim Cain.
Even so, the Explorer rebate departs from the value-pricing model Ford says it wants to implement. Ford already had rolled back sticker prices on the 2006 Explorer by as much as $3,900. Executives previously said they wanted to emulate the approach used for the 2005 Ford Five Hundred sedan and Freestyle sport wagon, which debuted last fall with moderate sticker prices. Ford then held off on cash rebates for several months.