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Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) is the only U.S. car company left standing that hasn't succumbed to government aid or taken a path through bankruptcy. But, in a way, it has found a little help from the U.S. government recently, as it posted the first monthly sales gain since 2007 on the back of the "Cash for Clunkers" trade-in program that worked so well, the initial billion dollars for the program is already exhausted.
It took about a week for consumers to plow through rebates up to $4,500 from the government and to swipe almost the entire $1 billion from the program. There was so much demand that the program was feverishly being planned to be extended with new government money. Ford alone saw a 2.4% increase over last year. $2 billion more was approved for the program by Congress, so will Ford continue to see gains with the new money? August could end up being larger than July, yes?
In July, Ford's share of the U.S. market rose to 17% from the year-earlier 14%, even as Ford cut back on its own spending incentives on the march to profitability, and despite Chrysler's own $4,500 incentive on top of the $4,500 government rebate (which just ended). Although the entire auto industry is in a steep funk in the U.S., July sales proved to be the start of the light at the end of the tunnel. August may be a bit brighter still.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-04-2009 @ 1:32PM
Ernest said...
Got my Cash for Clunker deal. I had a 2003 dodge ram with 142000 miles on it. My other car is a 2006 Nissan 350z both horrible on gas. I would drive my truck every day to work because the Z is my toy. My gas guzzler Nissan was costing me 300 plus a month on gas. The Z is not a car for driving every day.
At first I was going to buy a ford focus to support an American dealer. The Focus ride nice and had lots of options. It was even good on gas. Then we got into price haggling with the Sales manager and he did not wand to do the sale for 500 less. I agree that I will eat the 500 because it still was a great price after all the rebates and incentives. I was all set to wrap the deal up and pick the car up on Thursday before the 24th which was the official day the gov program began. Thursday came I got a call from my Fords sales man to come Friday to sign. He also wanted me to fill out a credit app so I could get a better rate. I already had a blank check from a bank. So ether way I had the financing. That’s when it’s started to smell fishy. That Thursday Nissan call they had a deal on a Versa hatch back and to come look at it. Then I saw a deal for a loaded Nissan Sentra for a grand more than the Versa and 500 less than the Ford. Well I end up buying the Nissan Sentra. Ford loose out because they snoozed and was looking for an angle to screw me.
I have had my car one week and I am so happy I did not by the Focus.
American dealers are doom if they keep trying to nickel and dime the consumers.
By the way I drove to work and the weekend on 25 dollars worth of gas and still had a quarter tank left. The gas I am saving will pay for the new car. At least I got some of my tax money back.
8-05-2009 @ 1:49AM
kevscot said...
It's nice to see that you considered purchasing an american vehicle because some people still believe that foreign automobiles are better than their american counterparts. There was a time when the quality of american automobiles were not as good as the imports but that was a long time ago and is no longer an issue. From reading your post it sounds like the problem was not the fault of Ford but of the person that you were dealing with. I'm sorry that you had a problem but you could have just as well had the same problem at the other dealer if that person had worked there instead. I'm glad that your happy that you got some of your tax dollars back from the incentive program. That program was designed to help the american automobile industry which didn't get any help from you because you weren't able to realize that you could have just gone to a different Ford dealership rather than going to the competition. Maybe you should just give back the incentive considering what it was intended for and the fact that you couldn't seem to figure out how to make that happen.