Falcon Ecoboost sales breakdown

[Brazen]

When the top buyers are employees, you know the car is in trouble - the same thing happend to Eunos in Japan and some of the lesser popular models in the US or Australia - although having said that, the Holden Adventra had much more fleet and private buyers than employee. What the article fails to talk about is I6 substitution, I have a feeling a lot of sales and every employee sales is in lieu of them picking a I6 - so not gaining Falcon any sales.

It is also worth noting, that decisions was made a few years ago and cannot be blamed on current management - wagon was dropped, local Focus was dropped and diesel Falcon and Falcon ute was not developed when they had the chance, all at roughly the same time.


http://smh.drive.com.au/motor-news/f...717-2272o.html

Four-cylinder Falcon flops

The four-cylinder engine that was supposed to be the saviour of the Ford Falcon has failed to set sales charts alight – despite being the most fuel-efficient Falcon ever made.

Ford and its employees have bought three times as many four-cylinder Falcons as private buyers in the car’s first three months in showrooms.

The Federal Government – which injected $230 million of taxpayer money to support the development of the four-cylinder Falcon and diesel Territory in 2009 – has bought just two of the “eco” sedans in the past three months.

According to confidential sales figures obtained by Drive, Ford Australia and its employees bought 159 four-cylinder Falcons in April, May and June – compared to 53 to private buyers and 101 fleet buyers for the same period.

Advertisement State Governments accounted for 22 sales while local councils accounted for just 13 deliveries.

A NSW government fleet manager told Drive state government departments couldn’t order the four-cylinder Falcon because it didn’t meet the state’s required environmental performance score for passenger cars.

Overall, the four-cylinder model made up 10 per cent of Falcon sedan sales in its first three months in showrooms, or 355 of 3448 deliveries. The LPG Falcon also accounted for a further 10 per cent of sales.

At the media launch of the vehicle, Ford said it hoped the four-cylinder “EcoBoost” model would eventually account for 25 per cent of the Falcon’s tally.

The slow uptake of the four-cylinder variant indicates that fuel economy may not be the primary reason for buyers leaving the large-sedan market. Falcon sales are at their lowest in the 52-year history of the nameplate and the model is now outside the top-20 sellers.

The four-cylinder EcoBoost model is the most fuel-efficient Falcon ever made – its acceleration is identical to the six-cylinder (0 to 100km/h in 6.9 seconds).

Only towing capacity is diminished (2300kg for the six-cylinder versus 1600kg for the four-cylinder).

A spokesman for Ford Australia, Neil McDonald, told Drive: “It was always going to be a slow burn. It was always a case of getting the vehicles out there to fleet and private buyers and having them experience the car [and spread the word].”

Ford said it only planned to sell 2000 four-cylinder Falcons this year; if sales continue at the current rate they won’t hit this target.

“If you look at the experience with the Ford F-Series pick-up in North America [which made Ecoboost power available alongside its V8s last year], the take-up was initially very low. But now it represents about 40 per cent [of sales].

“[The large-car market] is a very challenging segment, and we have got to keep addressing it,” says McDonald.

Ford says the controversial cane toad advertisement – used to promote the surprising pace of the four-cylinder Falcon by crushing a cane toad – did not backfire, despite complaints from some animal welfare groups.

“On the contrary the cane toad gave us a kick in social media, the ad has had [380,000] views online,” says McDonald. “[The cane toad ad] is something we hadn’t done before. It was meant to be a fun take. It wasn’t a real cane toad.”

Part of the reason for the four-cylinder Falcon’s slow take-up may be that it is not available in the XR6 styling package – only the plain-looking XT, G6 and G6E fleet models are available with four-cylinder power.

“Whether [a four-cylinder] XR is something buyers would consider is something we would have to look at. But at this stage it’s not on the radar.”

Four-cylinder Falcon sales – April to June 2012
Ford company and employee cars: 159
Private buyers: 53
Business and fleets: 101
Local Government: 13
State Government: 22
Federal Government: 2
Not-for-profit organisations: 7