Fg Falcon Quality?

[tmac450]

Don't kid yourself that the margins on the new cars are that slim. I know a dealership owner (not Ford, but he claims it's the same across the industry). Only the upper management and the manufacturer know the 'real' price of the cars. Wholesale pricing is set high on paper to hide the margins. Wholesale is reduced through bonus schemes, manufacturer credits, etc. Accessories and options are overpriced and trade ins are undervalued to increase profits. Yes servicing pricing is high, and their costs are kept to a minimum, but it's not where they make most of the money. Look at the money spent on dealership upgrades, etc. This guy bought the dealership for $25mill, burrowed most of it, and had it paid off in less than 2 years. He also manages to obtain brand new $40k cars for his immediate family for 'real cost', which is around the $25k mark.

On the dealrship issue, I completely agree, Ford desperatly needs proper dealer management, but they also need to provide more support for the dealers. The last two Fords I purchased, none of the numerous dealers I visited had a clue what the current factory bonuses were (not to mention a complete lack of product knowledge). The dealership near my work continually advertiss their 2nd hand cars with the new car price on the windscreen, showing customers how much they can save. They have 2 second hand FGs right next to new ones, openly advertising how much money a new buyer can expect to lose in a few months.

Ford needs to impliment some proper guidelines for dealers, offer them proper support and ensure that the information is getting out to the right people. Set pricing and packages for serviceing, along with requirements for quality of materials and workmanhip. Offer some proper set servicing packages at the time of purchase (similar to a subsciption). All of this (and more) can be done with dealership inspections, more training and the proper handling of customer complaints, with penalties for dealership not complying (instead of their current approach of the customer is wrong and the dealership is wright). For example, if a dealership is found to have damaged a customer car, or mistreating, etc, the dealership should be forced to pay.

Come on Ford, give me a job

Edited 05/02/09 12:09 AM by tmac450

[Venom XR6]

All good in theory, but because the dealerships are privately owned Ford have little control over them. This makes it very hard for them to tell them what to do, what to charge, how to operate etc. There are steps they can take to reel the poorly performing dealerships in but from what I can gather its not easy for them to do.

I don't consider the Aurion and Camry japanese vehicles if they are made in Australia!

But seriously, if you think that the FG is even close to something like a proper Japanese car (ie made in Japan) - I think you have lost perspective by working at Ford.

The Camry is a Japanese design, the Aurion is the same bar the front and rear bars which are styled here. V6's and all gearboxes are imported, only the 4 cylinder engine and some parts and panels are made here. You would call it an Australian assembled vehicle, not solely an Australian designed and made vehicle like the Falcon or Conformadore.

[SweetXR]

Minor engine oil leak. 4th attempt to fix. Hopefully works this time. Stuff happens I suppose.

Phenomenal car though!!

[tmac450]

It's not really that difficult. Most McDonalds, KFC and all other car dealerships are privately owned as a franchise. They all have set franchising and licencing agreements in order to ensure uniformity, fairness and that the franchisee is properly representing the brand. Ford just has to get their act together on this. It may take them a bit of time to get it through and implimented, but it is doable.

As far as the Camry is concerned, yes the majority of it is an Australian assembled car, but the Late model camira isn't that far behind. Prior to VE, the Late model camira was basically an Opal, with many of the parts coming from Europe and the US. The Falcon 6 is the most Australian car on the market, yet once again, Ford misses this point in their marketing, and allows Expensive Daewoo to continually get away with their farcical 'Australian Car' claims.

[PAH]

Don't kid yourself that the margins on the new cars are that slim. I know a dealership owner (not Ford, but he claims it's the same across the industry). Only the upper management and the manufacturer know the 'real' price of the cars:

The "Not for Profit" org I worked for in 2003 invited me to use their new car contacts. The list price for the SV8 back then was $40,490. I was shown two levels of discount. The first discount dropped the price to somewhere around $35. The other discount I was shown for the SV8 was a tad under $30k. That blew me away. As this org was "Not for Profit", I suspect it was able buy cars tax free. Maybe the $29k price was a tax exempt price? So what? Did Expensive Daewoo lose money selling at this price? I doubt it.

There was no way I was entitled to the $29k price. As I was a contractor not a Co exec, I missed out on the $35k price too. The Expensive Daewoo Dealer had ordered my car before I learned this. I walked away with a $3500 discount. BA XR6T's must have been very popular back then. The local Ford Dealer did not seem to want to talk about discounts. I was offered a $1500 discount on a WRX. Wish I had the WRX now - 2003 WRX owners are asking around $28k. 2003 SV8 owners (me)? $14k - $18k. Gotta sell private to get anything like a fair price. Trade-ins are crap.

PAH

Edited 06/02/09 09:25 PM by PAH

[Iconic Bionic]

Your not that much in front when you've paid your yearly insurance costs for a WRX versus the SV8.

I.B.

[ronburgundy]

I've seen client's accounts (as their accountant) - and yes I see them BEFORE they go to the Tax Office

I'm talking turnover of say $20m and profit (before tax) of $1m. That's 5%, a hell of a lot of risk that you need to turn over that much to make that level of profit. And that is INCLUDING service/parts.

[howitzer85]

...only the 4 cylinder engine and some parts and panels are made here. You would call it an Australian assembled vehicle...

Well that comment couldn't be any more wrong...

I wouldn't call every body panel on the car, suspension components, interior trim, seats, lights (the LED ones are imported though), alloy wheels, (the list goes on) 'some' components.

Ford could learn a thing or two about how toyota makes cars, I'm not talking about design because the falcon is a good design, I'm talking about the actual manufacturing process.

oh and for the guys in ford QC do abit of research on 'jidoka'

[bunna]

Don't kid yourself that Ford doesn't look at what toyota does. The Ford plants throughout asia pacific are excellent, truly very, very good. However, here in Aus we are talking about a plant that is 50 years old, and we're talking a few $$$$ to make the major changes that would be required to implement the systems that Ford would really like to.

Oh, and Ford Aus has a QA dept, not QC.

[rockafellqeinstien]

I have had my FG xr6T ute manual for about 5 months and almost 30000ks.

I am stoked with the car - every time I put my foot down. and really it has been a very reliable car. Sure it wont have the refinment of an accord but then an accord doesn't have 600nm and 1800+kgs for less than $40k. So I can live with the gearbox rattle below 1500 rpm/ driveline backlash and the other little issues. Besides the Drive line roughness I would say it is on par with any Jap/Euro car I have owned (including Lexus - yes they did have issues)

The problem I have is the after sales service. I dont really care that my wiper water jets don't work all the time (I should get of my arse and have a look why) but when the dealer (castle hill) charges you about $40 bucks because they work when they checked them it kinda pisses you off and the attitude doesn't help either. They pretty much dismiss every other issue by stating "that's how they are".

I am going to try winford service and if that fails I will probably end up going the a mechanic where you actually talk to the guy working on your car (but he wont have any service bulitins or software updates).

As long as you not an anal retentive freak who spends their lunch time going arounnd chocking up wobbly tables at the food court you'll be happy with the car.