Ford Revs Up Discounts to Lift Sagging F-150 Sales

“This may be a hint that in certain parts of the country, the issue might just be more than supply”.

Is Ford’s super-important new pickup in trouble?

Ford (NYSE:F) has been saying for months that slow-looking sales of its new 2015 F-150 pickup were due to tight supplies.

The all-new aluminium human body moving truck remains relatively a novice to the shops, this requires that marking down is uncommon, but ford is downplaying the rate reductions.

Sales of the Ford F-150 have been sluggish this year. The automakers price the trucks with incentives in mind, and they still generate plenty of profits from the vehicles. Even the hottest brand-new pickups will have some level of incentives available on some models, just because that’s what buyers expect.

Part of why inventory is low is that it’s a long, complex process to convert Ford’s two F-150 plants for using aluminum, but The Detroit Bureau is also reporting that “Ford cut weekend shifts at its Dearborn Truck and Kansas City Assembly plants because the supplier they use for the frames, Metalsa, was unable to meet the demand”.

It is unclear which regions around the United States get the biggest discounts on the 2015 F150, but if you have been seriously considering buying a new half ton Ford truck, right now could be a very good time to check the available incentives in your area. That’s about $600 less than Ford was offering on the outgoing models a year ago.

John Krafcik, president of TrueCar (TRUE), an online vehicle buying platform, tweeted on Thursday: “F Series is crushing it with all-time record pickup truck ATP (average transaction price) of $46,573” – an 8.1% increase over last year’s average.

The company’s brand new F-150 is seen to be selling out quickly in the market, despite its high price.

“Considering the regional nature of the incentives used for the story, Anand followed that up with the speculation that “[w]hat will be more telling is whether the incentives start to go out nationwide. It says the $7,050 price cut, for instance, isn’t a lump sum, but a number of discounts bundled together – from different kinds of cash-back deals to incentives on upscale options packages. The investment bank said it expected earnings momentum to “accelerate” in 2016 driven by production of the new truck.

Improving inventory of F-150 is letting Ford offer more competitive incentives as part of its Summer Sales Event promotion. Some discounts definitely are specific to the F-150 pickup truck, even though the company is of the view that the discount level is pretty modest, as compared to the standards of the big pickups’ discounts.