Ford wants truck title back in July Popular F-150 can't compete with GM's employee discounts and loses status as top seller. By David Phillips / The Detroit News Is the mighty Ford F-150 pickup truck in danger of losing its longtime sales crown? Helped by General Motors Corp.'s popular employee-style discounts, the Chevrolet Silverado surged past the F-150 in June by a wide margin and set a new monthly record for big pickup sales -- 109,359 units. And for the year, the Silverado trails the F-150 pickup in sales by just 23,526 units -- raising the stakes in one of Detroit's longest and most closely watched product rivalries. Now Ford is rallying dealers to set a new monthly record in July for the F-150 pickup. Ford had held the record for monthly full-size pickup truck sales since October 2001, when it sold 102,424 F-150 models during the auto industry's sales blitz following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The F-150 has been the nation's top-selling light vehicle for 28 consecutive years and is Ford's most profitable vehicle line. With losses mounting in North America, it is making a renewed effort to revive F-150 sales that have dropped 6 percent this year. "We want to re-establish a new full-size pickup monthly sales record with over 110,000 F-series sales in July," Ford Division President Daryl Hazel told dealers in a letter last week. "It is essential that we close the month strong and report all F-series sales." The heightened sales race has produced a major pricing war between Chevrolet and Ford, while undermining profitability at GM. and Ford. The average transaction price of a 2005 Silverado 1500 pickup has dropped 3 percent from $25,004 in January to $24,193 in June, according to Edmunds.com, an online shopping guide. Average F-150 prices have dropped 2 percent since January, to $25,799 last month. The raft of new discounts by Detroit and other automakers is expected to push July's new car and truck sales to a four-year high. Major automakers will report July sales on Tuesday. "We're going to put up big sales numbers with the F-150 in July," Ford spokesman Jon Harmon said. "And we intend to remain the sales leader among full-size pickup truck brands for the year." GM is making a major push to re-energize the Chevrolet product lineup, which has overtaken Ford this year in overall car and light truck sales. "We aren't just focused on Ford," GM spokesman Joe Jacuzzi said. "We intend to play aggressively in every part of the sandbox, including full-size pickups." In addition to fending off Chevrolet, Ford also is being squeezed by Dodge, GMC, Toyota and Nissan in the big pickup market. Analysts expect Chevrolet to continue offering aggressive pricing on the Silverado -- including a value-priced 2006 model -- until the pickup is re-engineered and redesigned next year. "It's going to be a dynamic match," said Jim Ziegler, an automotive retail consultant based in Duluth, Ga. "Rarely do GM and Ford steal loyal customers from one another, but GM has been outmarketing Ford, even though Ford has the newer truck model with an edge in technology." You can reach David Phillips at (313) 222-2739 or dphillips@detnews.com. Web Source: http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosinsider/0507/31/D01-264357.htm
