Alan Mulally Visits Galpin Ford
I missed the event. I would have gone to Galpin Ford for the first time just to meet the man. I've been to the Premiere Auto Group and Mazda dealers across Roscoe Blvd; but I've never found myself shopping for a Ford at the largest Ford dealership in the world.
We rarely get visits to LA from the executives inside the Detroit Bubble. They don't like it here. It's depressing when your market share is a single digit in the most important single marketplace in the world.
Thanks to an excellent editorial in Autonews.com, Los Angeles bureau reporter March Rechtin gave us all a peak at the California market and some interesting statistics.
Here's the back story: At the National Automobile Dealers Association convention in February 2007, Ford CEO Alan Mulally promised to visit Ford dealerships to "keep his finger on the pulse" of the retail market. His first stop was at a dealer in Dearborn, Michigan and Mr. Rechtin reports that Mr. Mulally sold four in 40 minutes! Wow! But this is like selling four Toyotas at Longo Toyota in 40 minutes. That's probably a low number for Longo! Visiting a dealer in
Dearborn Michigan really isn't a good barometer of the real world as Dearborn just happens to be host to FoMoCo Headquarters.
But his next stop was (drum roll) Galpin Ford in Good old Van Nuys, California. Galpin Ford has long held the crown as the largest Ford dealer in the US, and by default, the world. Galpin has acres of Ford product. The big sellers are the F-150 pickup (and its variants), customized Ford work trucks (stake side, dump beds, studio trucks, etc.) and the Ford Mustang.
I doubt there is much demand for the aged Focus or the dowdy Five Hundred. Do customers even know that the Freestyle crossover exists? My guess is that Galpin sells more Crown Victoria sedans than any other Ford car aside from the Mustang. The Crown Victoria has a chassis and powertrain that dates back more than 25 years. It's a dinosaur and it still sells!
There was no advance press warning that Mr. Mulally would be at Galpin Ford. The visit was secret and brief -- only six hours. There was no report as to Mr. Mulally's sales success in So Cal. Maybe he didn't find many customers during his six hour visit.
I think Mr. Mulally is being guided to "friendly" Ford dealers. He should have visited Santa Monica Ford and Buerge Ford -- both west of the 405 on Santa Monica Blvd. Those stores compete against each other. The tiny Chevrolet/Buick/Olds store in West LA on the north side of Santa Monica Blvd is barely a blip on a GPS navigation screen let alone competition for the much larger Ford dealers. I wonder if it sells anything other some trucks/SUVs and the Corvette?
Mr. Rechtin cites interesting statistics. Toyota has 135 dealers in California and they each sell an average of 3,500 vehicles a year. Ford has 209 dealers in California and the average sales per dealer are a paltry 900. Ford's sales trend is down -- 15.5% in the first quarter of 2007 -- so average dealer sales figures are only going to get worse in 2007. Ford needs fresh product in the showrooms now.
The Edge crossover SUV is a start; but it's not a star. Ford bungled the introduction of the Edge guessing wrong on product mix demand. The consumer wanted highly-optioned vehicles while Ford guessed the opposite. Many customers left without getting the Edge because they couldn't find one they wanted in the right color with the right option packages!
This week, at the New York Auto Show, Ford will introduce its minivan replacement called the "Flex". It's the production version of the fantastic show car from two seasons ago called the Fairlane. Does anyone under 30 even know that the Fairlane name has been used on prior Ford vehicles? And does anyone know that the name Fairlane is taken from Henry Ford's country estate? No. But I like the sound of Fairlane better than Flex.
The Flex will live or die based on how groundbreaking it is in production form. The concept had some trick features but I doubt any of them will show up on the production Flex. The show car had suicide (Ford called them "French") doors on each side to load passengers. The minivan sliders were gone.
The rear tailgate was triple-hinged -- an industry first. The window flipped up and the tailgate opened to either side! A refrigerator was built into the rear door and a flip down food prep area, complete with utensils, makes this car picnic ready.
The dash was completely show-car. From a single narrow HVAC vent running the entire width of the dash to aluminum, oak and maple wood veneers and tan hides everywhere -- you won't see any of this on a production car.
Seating was for six in three rows -- captain chairs in the second row and third rows! And with the rear seats all folded flat, the cargo area and seat backs were lined with precision metal that looked like stainless steel. Stainless steel or aluminum is a lovely sight; but let's see what plastic or carpet looks like in a production.
The basic architecture of the production Flex will probably make it to production. Ford is already using the 3.0 liter Duratec V6 mated to a six-speed automatic in other models. The platform is a front- or AWD platform. I believe it's the same platform developed by Volvo for the all-new well-executed S80. The same architecture will be used (in shortened form) for the upcoming new Volvo S60 sedan and XC60 wagon. Ford says that the platform will appear in no less than nine Ford-group products.
So far, Mr. Mulally has taken good first (if obvious) steps to push Ford's North American operations to downsize. Most of this was common sense: Bring Ford Europe products to the US. Resurrect the name Taurus for the Five Hundred. Close factories and lay off thousands of high-cost employees.
The true test of Mr. Mulally will be to see if he can become a "car guy" rather than just a high-priced hit man. Of course, that means hit products that are well made, distinctively styled and that can define a segment or create a new one. That's a tall order; however Ford needs nothing less than a superstar new product to lift it out of its downward tailspin to formal bankruptcy.
For Mr. Mulally's next visit, perhaps he needs to be a secret shopper and see how he gets treated. That could be very illuminating! And if he returns to Los Angeles, he should take the short helicopter ride to Longo Toyota/Lexus/Scion in El Monte. That trip would be a good dose of reality medicine. Longo (owned by Roger Penske of United Auto and Smart USA fame) is like a separate world unto itself. It's very scary to people inside the Detroit Bubble. It even scares me!
