I would hope Ford decides to offer 0%, lower financing or better additional offers, since their competitors are doing combinations.
The "why" would be to gain customers and narket share they may not have gitten otherwise.
My theory in mind is that feds hiking the interest rates affects everything in this country including large companies such as Ford. In the end everyone is going to have to pay the premiums due to the interest rates being hiked all across the country.
Ram/Chevy/GMC dealerships near me are offering some incentives too.. though i strongly believe that they are piss poor. Until these automotive manufactures start offering 0% for 60+ months plus cash incentives is the day they shall see sales significantly rise Lol.
Yeah trucks went from being an inexpensive utilitarian vehicle in the 80's to costing as much as sports cars today. If I lived in Florida or California, the M3 would be an easy decision. I'm guessing it wouldn't do very well in 2 feet of snow here though...
Haha truth.Loading your dirt bikes in it could be problematic too.
Does Ford care that much about increasing market share? Nope, not right now. Will 0% financing return this year? I wouldn’t hold my breath.
As cynical as this sounds, a big part of the problem is a consumer base that is not patient and/or savvy in a lot of cases. if people keep paying these INSANE prices regardless of circumstances, the OEM's will have no reason to ever discount vehicles again. I love F150, but to be honest I am leaning more and more towards a RAM or GMC if they are willing to actually make some decisions that benefit me as the consumer instead of purely making decisions that benefit their corporate pocketbook (as a capiltalist at heart, I understand this, AND there needs to be a balance between them making money and keeping customers as as well).Does Ford care that much about increasing market share? Nope, not right now. Will 0% financing return this year? I wouldn’t hold my breath.
I’ve looked through FoMoCo transcripts of analysts calls this year. Farley and John Lawler (the CFO money guy) have teased since mid-year that they “might” have to do something on that end (lower financing rates depending on the economy) but nothing specific. They of course are masters at corporate-speak, answering analyst’s questions w/o really saying anything.
3Q22 earnings call danced around this in typical fashion, only things of note to me weren’t breaking news stuff but interesting factoids:
*Farley basically said “yeah we know about higher GM/Stellantis incentives spend, yawn, we’ve already accounted for some of that”. I still don’t exactly know what he means by “I really watch mix changes (F150 trims, F150 vs Superduty, etc)”. So I guess (?) we should all hope Superduty orders continue to go through the roof, resulting in F150’s staying on lots longer, possibly driving bigger F150 incentives spend. I’m not holding my breath on this either.
*F150 turn rates (how fast inventory moves off the lots) – previously Lariats turned faster than XLT’s, last quarter XLT’s turning faster. Interesting that Farley said he really watches this metric.
*uptick in 84 mo. financing. 7 friggin’ years!
But the biggest reason I don’t we’ll see any significantly bigger incentives spend (interest rates, cash-back, PCO’s, etc) this year is – they don’t have to, in fact they’re currently motivated NOT to bump up incentives spend. Spend less, make WAY more.
Ford, like other manufacturers, has pulled off some real financial alchemy this year, creating $ out of thin air. Market share? Lower sales volumes? Who cares, we’re making bank now and it’ll cost too much to get back to pre-pandemic sales volumes.
From Cox Auto News back in September, very stunning numbers below.
Who's Ready for a Return to the Good Ol' Days? Not the CFOs. - Cox Automotive Inc. (coxautoinc.com)
