Ford Offering $10000 Discount on New Aluminum F-150 Pickup - Bloomberg
Ford Motor Co. has begun offering discounts that can exceed $10,000 on the new aluminum-bodied F-150 pickup to reverse a sales slump while it works to build inventory on dealer lots. sales slid 8. 9 percent last month for Ford’s F-Series pickups, its top-selling line and most profitable vehicles. The truck’s share of the big-pickup market fell to 28 percent in June from 33 percent a year earlier, according to researcher Autodata Corp. Ford blamed tight inventory caused by the conversion of two plants to build the trucks, the first mass-market vehicles to use lightweight aluminum so extensively. “The truck hasn’t sold up to expectations for the most part,” Akshay Anand, an analyst at auto researcher Kelley Blue Book, said in an e-mail. Improving inventory of F-150 is letting Ford offer more competitive incentives as part of its Summer Sales Event promotion, Erich Merkle, the company’s sales analyst, said Wednesday. Ford shares fell 0. 6 percent to $14. 66 at 11:07 a. m. in New York. Ford cut spending on marketing promotions per vehicle 16 percent in this year’s first half to an average. Source: www.bloomberg.com
