The time when it was cool to drive the biggest, baddest SUV or truck is officially history! The proof is in the numbers. In May, the Ford F-150 was not the most sold vehicle in the United States for the first time in 17 years! Yes, every year since 1991 Ford has sold more F-150s than any other automaker has sold any model. Last month it was outsold by not one, not two... but four other vehicles, all of which are paragons of longevity, economy, and quality. Honda's Civic and Accord, as well as Toyota's Corolla and Camry all sold more in May than Ford's F-150.
And I say it's about time!
Finally, people have woken up and started to make responsible choices. People are slowly realizing that the 12mpg dinosaur in their driveway isn't making them "cool" any more. The average, intelligent consumer no longer admires those SUVs and full-size pickups that everyone wanted to drive to the grocery store just a few years ago.
And it wasn't only Ford that slipped up. All the brands that rely heavily on truck and SUV sales for their numbers had a horrible May. Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors all lost significants sales in May... 28%, 19%, and 30% respectively.
The biggest individual brand name loser? Hummer at -61.7%. GMC was close behind with a loss of over 38%.
That's a whole lot less SUVs we'll all be seeing on the road as time goes on. And eventually, that also means a whole lot less demand for gas, which is what the fuel companies keep telling us is the reason behind all the increases we've been subject to. A decade and a half of irresponsible vehicle buying habits is why we're now all paying between $4.50 and $5.50 per gallon of gas.
And here's where their "blindly clinging to the past" attitude really makes me wonder just how bright these people are. In an article titled "Asian Brands Outsell Big 3 In May" in the Detroit News I read this:
Floundering truck sales caused Ford's market share to fall to 15.6 percent, from 16.5 percent a year ago. The company hopes to boost demand for its trucks by offering employee pricing to everyone on F-150, F-250 and F-350 models this month, ahead of the introduction the redesigned F-150 later this year.
"We've been 31 years running the leading vehicle in that segment," Farley said. "We see this as an important merchandising strategy."
Sales of Ford's best-selling small car, the Focus, rose 53.2 percent in May to 32,579 vehicles, while sales of F-series pickups plummeted 30.6 percent to 42,973. Farley said the Focus outsold the F-series in dealer showrooms, but commercial and fleet sales gave the pickup more total sales.
Commercial and fleet sales (which are what I consider to be the only legitimate reasons to buy an F-150... not simply because someone feels a pickup is cool) are the only thing keeping the F-150 from being outsold by Ford's own economy car. And yet they don't realize that perhaps it's time to move on and start treating the North American automotive more like the rest of the world's markets? Leave the trucks to the contractors, the builders, the people that work with them, and start focusing on making quality cars instead.
And he's not the only ignorant one. From the same article:May's sales results reflect consumers' general shift away from trucks, but the fact that four cars outsold the F-Series is mainly a reflection of record high gas prices, said Tom Libby, senior director of industry analysis at Power Information Network, a unit of J.D. Power and Associates in Troy.
"At the end of the year, the F-150 will still be the top-selling vehicle," he said. Libby added that high gas prices, which are likely near their peak for the year, encourage people to buy more fuel-efficient vehicles, such as the Civic, while truck buyers are more likely to buy when gas prices fall and incentives increase.
Get with the program man! Gas prices aren't going to be cut in half overnight.
As one writer put it... "gentlemen, that sound you just heard was the canary hitting the floor of your coal mine".
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