How many customers is Ford losing because they're not prepared to wait a year for a Mustang

[XWGT]

I think people might also be confusing short term release demand with long term demand.
While I love Ford I seriously doubt they will be selling 5,000 Mustangs per year once the initial orders are filled. So two years to satisfy pent up demand and then it will probably smooth out without any major investment in ramping up.

Personally I wont wait that long for any car. But I will certainly be looking in 18 months time when I fully expect them to be readily accessible.

[Smoke Pursuit]

I cant understand why they wont build more Wildtraks instead of XLT..

All they are doing is crippling themselves in the market.

As for Mustang who cares, you don't have many other options when it comes to the Stang in that price bracket. I think most people are happy to wait, makes it more exciting and close to them.

[The Yeti]

you don't have to discount a car with a waiting list

just saying

[neptune blue]

Originally Posted by BAXRSIX

Personally I think a short term solution to the huge backlog of Australian Mustang orders and 12 month plus waiting lists would be the following;

Instead of closing down the Australian Broadmeadows factory in October this year, keep it open, for at least another couple of years... Import the left hand drive USA Mustangs and use the Broadmeadows factory (or part of it with a scaled back production crew), to convert them to right hand drive for both the Australian and New Zealand markets.

Think about it this way....

There is no shortage or waiting lists for a left hand drive Mustang in the US.
The USA mustang GT sells for around US$35,000 or AUD$48,000.
Ford Australia could probably land (at cost) the Mustang GT in left hand drive for around AUD$30,000.
Spend $10K tops using Australian labour converting them by hand (not production line) and still have dealers sell them for $65K. The right hand drive Components and dash would also be imported by container lots.

While Ford Australia's profit by doing this would not be as great as simply importing the right hand drive cars, it would provide jobs for our car workers, and clear the back log, till the USA factory can catch up.

I'm also sure Ford could secure some government funding for the project, if at least to keep car workers employed a little longer.

I don't agree with your figures. The cost to land would be much higher and the cost to convert and for it to be compliant would be huge . How big is the waiting list. It would have to be thousands waiting for a business case to remotely stack up

[neptune blue]

Originally Posted by XWGT

I think people might also be confusing short term release demand with long term demand.
While I love Ford I seriously doubt they will be selling 5,000 Mustangs per year once the initial orders are filled. So two years to satisfy pent up demand and then it will probably smooth out without any major investment in ramping up.

Personally I wont wait that long for any car. But I will certainly be looking in 18 months time when I fully expect them to be readily accessible.

I'm going to buy one when people don't want them any more. History has shown that Australians fall out of love with large 2 door cars quickly. Same thing happened with the monaro. You couldn't get one initially. That eventually changed

[FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0]

Maybe I'm just a "glass half full" rather than a "glass half empty" kind of person, but I prefer to think about the Mustang situation as "How many customers is Ford gaining because they are prepared to sell factory made right hand drive Mustangs in Australia" as opposed to the headline on this article.

[Sabantien]

Originally Posted by madmatty

will you wait 6 months for a mondeo i wonder?

Probably not, I'm impatient. But then I've seen plenty of them in the car yards, so I'm not convinced i'd have to wait.

[nstg8a]

Originally Posted by BAXRSIX

Spend $10K tops using Australian labour converting them by hand (not production line) and still have dealers sell them for $65K. The right hand drive Components and dash would also be imported by container lots.

It costs $30000-40000 to convert a modern car to right hand drive... No way is there any way ford could do it for 10k.

[Fordman1]

Originally Posted by BAXRSIX

Personally I think a short term solution to the huge backlog of Australian Mustang orders and 12 month plus waiting lists would be the following;

Instead of closing down the Australian Broadmeadows factory in October this year, keep it open, for at least another couple of years... Import the left hand drive USA Mustangs and use the Broadmeadows factory (or part of it with a scaled back production crew), to convert them to right hand drive for both the Australian and New Zealand markets.

Think about it this way....

There is no shortage or waiting lists for a left hand drive Mustang in the US.
The USA mustang GT sells for around US$35,000 or AUD$48,000.
Ford Australia could probably land (at cost) the Mustang GT in left hand drive for around AUD$30,000.
Spend $10K tops using Australian labour converting them by hand (not production line) and still have dealers sell them for $65K. The right hand drive Components and dash would also be imported by container lots.

While Ford Australia's profit by doing this would not be as great as simply importing the right hand drive cars, it would provide jobs for our car workers, and clear the back log, till the USA factory can catch up.

I'm also sure Ford could secure some government funding for the project, if at least to keep car workers employed a little longer.

PP GT sells for about US $ 40,000

Add our GST 10%

Add transport rego etc

That makes it about US $45,000 or A$ 63,000

We get a pretty good deal.

The current pent up demand will be resolved in a couple or years.

The idea of conversion won't work. ADR's testing etc will cost millions as will keeping the Assembly plant open with its associated overheads.

That $63,000 Mustang would then be $95,000 +

[DFB FGXR6]

/\ Just like the Tickford Mustangs from 2001

[Fordman1]

Originally Posted by DFB FGXR6

/\ Just like the Tickford Mustangs from 2001

And the quality would be deplorable.

They'd be cutting holes in the firewall and doing all sorts of disposal of parts (eg steering columns, removing engines, etc etc).

What a nightmare !!!

Not only that it'd take 3 years to engineer a solution if they started full bore with funding now !

[PG2]

The converted LHD ones would also not be very desirable.

You would be paying twice as much for it to be worth half as much of a genuine RHD.

[SYZ]

Originally Posted by nstg8a

It costs $30000-40000 to convert a modern car to right hand drive... No way is there any way ford could do it for 10k.

Agreed. The RHD conversion costs would be totally out of proportion because of the relatively small numbers of Australian ADR-compliant vehicles involved. Why would US Ford bother when they've got potential Aussie buyers queuing up already. And who'd buy a "butchered" version anyway?

[CyberWasp]

Meanwhile at Chrysler / Dodge, who have said many times they could bring 300's here in the Charger Body / 300 Interior .......... crickets chirping.

[jpd80]

Recently, Ford found a way to increase deliveries to Australia by 2,000 cars, so they are responding
and I suspect that now US inventory is above 33,000, it's time to start focusing on RHD exports.

It sounds like Ford was truly surprised by the strong response to Mustang, beyond their wildest dreams
and now the very good headache of trying to supply decent volume to a hungry market...

God help them if they ever get to the stage of actually having floor stock for walk in buyers...

Me thinks part of the short supply of Mustang was to protect the last of Falcon sales and
let it go out with a bang but once the gates swing close and there's no more, then perhaps
supply of Mustang can start to ramp up a bit more..

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by CyberWasp

Meanwhile at Chrysler / Dodge, who have said many times they could bring 300's here in the Charger Body / 300 Interior .......... crickets chirping.

Word is now that next gen 300 will be FWD/AWD and based on platform shared with a crossover.

[FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0]

Another question for those in the know: is the bottleneck in the Mustang supply chain in Ford Australia's control (ie freight arrangements, distribution in Aus, etc) or is it something outside their reasonable control, such as the numbers of right hand drive Mustangs they are given off the production line from Ford NA?

It is easy to sit on the side lines and comment but when you are trying to resolve the supply chain bottlenecks, there is sometimes only so much that can be changed.

[GO FURTHER]

Originally Posted by psychobimbo

Another question for those in the know: is the bottleneck in the Mustang supply chain in Ford Australia's control (ie freight arrangements, distribution in Aus, etc) or is it something outside their reasonable control, such as the numbers of right hand drive Mustangs they are given off the production line from Ford NA?

When Ford Australia first released the 2015 Mustang, they wanted to ensure they got the initial sales number targets, so they offered the Mustangs at too good a price.
When demand exceeded their expectations, they tried to source a greater quota of the RHD production runs from the factory, which of course are being made for other countries as well as Australia.
Ford USA decided that it was more profitable to ship the RHD cars to the other countries than Australia at the then current pricing.

That is why, Ford Australia raised the price of the Mustangs in December to show a greater profit margin on future orders from customers who placed a deposit and went on the waiting list. This made it easier for Ford Australia to negotiate more cars with the USA head office on the margin issue.

Contrary to popular belief, the price rises had nothing to do with the fall in the AUD$ against the US$ at the time. If that was the case... Why didn't we see wholesale increases on other imported models and brands at that time?

The orders now have blown out to 6,000 cars, and the waiting list is long into 2017, even with the extra 2,000 cars Ford Australia was able to get.

I think what has happened, even with the price rises, is that as people start to see more Aussie Mustangs on our roads in the flesh... It has created even more demand and desirability.

[Shonky.]

A manufacturer has two choices. Invest in extra plant to raise production up to meet initial demand, or have waiting lists in the short term

The cost of loosing a few sales is minor compared to the cost of setting up production to support larger volumes, only to have demand subside and leave you with idle capacity

[xr6man366]

Rather wait till Ford inevitably bring in the limited edition Gt350 or Gt350R than wait 12months for the more common baseline GT ...even though they are saying not suitable for our market I am betting this will happen at some stage down the track ..am betting this will be when the local demand for the base GT levels out and they want to re-energise the brand

[R12RT]

Originally Posted by Sabantien

Probably not, I'm impatient. But then I've seen plenty of them in the car yards, so I'm not convinced i'd have to wait.

That would depend how fussy you are.

I've been waiting seven months for a red Titanium diesel hatch...

None in stock in WA.

There is only about 12 diesel titanium hatches Australia wide.

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by xr6man366

Rather wait till Ford inevitably bring in the limited edition Gt350 or Gt350R than wait 12months for the more common baseline GT ...even though they are saying not suitable for our market I am betting this will happen at some stage down the track ..am betting this will be when the local demand for the base GT levels out and they want to re-energise the brand

Guys on the 6G forum reckon the Mach 1 will come soon enough. I'd imagine that should come here. I don't think the current GT350 will, as they have said it's a limited run of cars and production will stop within a year or 2.