Mulally makes some friends, sells some cars at Dearborn dealership
Ford CEO Alan Mulally continues to lay on the charm, this time popping up at Village Ford in Dearborn, Michigan last Monday to do a trial run on the sales floor of a dealership. We reported in early February that Mulally was planning on spending one or two days at a dealership selling cars, and this appears to be an experiment to make sure his sales skills don't send customers running to the nearest Toyota dealership. It turns out, however, that Mulally is a natural salesman, as he sold three cars in just 40 minutes on the floor, with a fourth sale that's still pending. In one case, he talked Nancy Miner from Liverpool, NY into a Fusion that she was cross-shopping with a Camry. If you remember, Mulally's own garage was filled with all manner of Toyota and Lexus cars before he came to Ford, so the CEO was well situated to present the case for his own Fusion to Ms. Miner. She ended up buying the Fusion and driving it back to New York.
It's just cool a CEO would get down in the trenches and actually engage consumers on a showroom floor. There's no wall of PR behind which he can hide when the tough questions start flying, and apparently he handled whatever came his way with aplomb. Credit goes to Mulally for doing this first, as well. If Rick Wagoner, Tom LaSorda or Jim Press show up to move some product at their respective dealerships, it will smack of a PR stunt and likely backfire. Unfortunately, charm can only take Mulally and his company so far on its path to recovery, so we hope he doesn't get enamored with a life of retail and gets back to doing CEO-type things quickly.
[Source: Automotive News]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Bryan 6:45PM (3/27/2007)
I think it's a good thing. It shows that he is willing to work with all people involved from the customer to the employees. This is what Bill Ford should have done a long time ago.
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Daniel 6:46PM (3/27/2007)
I would buy a good Ford Hybrid that gets mileage equal to a Prius - if he had one to sell?
I would also buy a full plug-in series hybrid with a small diesel that gets about 80 MPG if he had one to sell - Oh, I almost forgot, Ford did build the Prodigy in the mid 1990s that did just that - so why can't I buy one Alan?????
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Greek Boy 6:53PM (3/27/2007)
Hey Daniel, how about an SUV Hybrid that blows away anything that Toyota or Honda can achieve in FE.
Ford has several of those.
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BOB 1:03AM (3/28/2007)
YEAH, YEAH -- but, as I said when it was mentioned awhile back that he was gonna do this, put him in a dealership in California for a few days. He needs to be somewhere where the American cars have taken their biggest hit, so he can see what the real problems are.
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Tagg 7:06PM (3/27/2007)
I would also buy a full plug-in series hybrid with a small diesel that gets about 80 MPG if he had one to sell - Oh, I almost forgot, Ford did build the Prodigy in the mid 1990s that did just that - so why can't I buy one Alan?????
Because in the mid 90's there was no market for such a vehicle. The Prius was nothing 6 years ago let alone in the mid 90's. Even today a market for such a vehicle is still small and the concept is over a decade old.
I don't know of anyone that has a diesel plug-in hybrid so you might be out of luck there.
I think its good for the CEO to have a basic understanding of all aspects of their business. You don't see much of that today and I think Mulally has what it takes to make this work.
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chuck goolsbee 7:17PM (3/27/2007)
Speaking from the perspective only as a potential customer, I don'y know who I would hold in lower esteem; The Overpaid Fortune 500 CEO, or the pondscum that inhabit that last bastion of negotiated price& intimidation, the Car Dealer.
Which is the lesser of the two evils?
Throw in a self-centered UAW representative and you would have the trifecta of what ails the industry!
--chuck
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elnino2783 7:26PM (3/27/2007)
I think I may actually know the Nancy Miner mentioned in the article. If it is the person I'm thinking of, I used to play all sorts of sports with her son from middle school through high school.
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Daniel 7:39PM (3/27/2007)
Greek Boy and Tagg:
If Ford, or GM or anyone else offered a full plug-in series drive diesel-hybrid that gets the 80 MPG that they achieved a decade ago under the DOE funded PNGV demonstration project - they could not build them fast enough to keep any on the lots. They would sell them by the boat load and sell them at a nicely profitable price ($35k plus).
Some company is going to take the lead in this market and with gas prices going ever upward and with all the concern for global warming - this type of eco friendly and pocket book friendly super hybrid is going to be the wave of the future, the wave of the future, the wave of the future (Leonardo DeCaprio).
Companies can either get out in front on this issue or they can get steem rolled by it - their choice.
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Tool 7:45PM (3/27/2007)
I have a pretty favorable opinion of Mulally. I think he is one of the good guys in this industry amd God knows we could use a few of them.
Three cars in 40 minutes? You should have made him really hump for sales instead of giving him every up the store had that hour. Nevertheless, it was a good PR move and I wish him the best.
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David 7:48PM (3/27/2007)
At the same time, it is @ Dearborn, MI!
He should try it in Los Angeles or some other area that isn't as pro-domestic
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Ralphie 8:17PM (3/27/2007)
Unless this bozo just grabbed someone off the street and promised to sell him a car in the showroom for $20,000 off MSRP, it is impossible to sell 1 car -- let alone 3 -- in 40 minutes.
I have been selling cars for over 20 years. It takes some time to befriend a client, assess their needs, select a car from the lot, present the car and its features, take a test drive, and then present opening numbers. This alone takes 30+ minutes.
These facts are distorted at best. Bullsh*t. Plain and simple.
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owen 8:21PM (3/27/2007)
These facts are distorted at best. Bullsh*t. Plain and simple.
i am with you 100%
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far jr 8:50PM (3/27/2007)
Ralphie... I concurr.
Owen... I agree with you too. Nice to see you not slinging insults at other bloggers to make a point.
I'd say these "buyers" had been well groomed by other sales staff then "handed" off to the Chief to close the deal.
Of course Alan may have gotten them to agree to the purchase "if a satisfactory price could be reached". At that point he handed the buyer off to a salesman to "finalize the details". Just my opinion on the matter.
How many total sales did the dealership have during this time frame?
I'm also curious to know what (if anything) was traded in for these purchases.
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Greek Boy 8:53PM (3/27/2007)
Hey Daniel,
you bitched that Ford does not have a Hybrid. I told you they do and it is better than any SUV hybrid in FE made today.
You seemed to ignore that completely. I understand why, don't worry.
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Gerry 9:25PM (3/27/2007)
Hey Ralphie, thanks for the comment. With Ford in such dire straights it's amazing to think their CEO has time to give from keeping this sinking ship afloat to stand in a Dearborn area dealership selling a few cars. And congratulations for selling that Ford Fusion to Nancy Miner Alan! Did you present it as an "American" made vehicle the way they do it at our local dealership? Let's see, This car is made in Mexico, Japanese transmission, and a paltry 30% US/Canadian parts content. The Camry on the other hand, made in US, American made engine, and 75% US/Canadian parts content. I wonder if Alan had told her the truth about this car in that it's production had little to do with anyone in the Michigan area aside from the Fatcats at the corporate office if she'd of still bought it. Just looked in the Kelly Blue Book-Nancy sure isn't going to enjoy the same resale value the Camry gives over the Fusion either. Now is this the car Ford's going to rename the Maverick, or Pinto, or Festiva (can you speak rebadged Kia) as they will be doing with the floundering 500 going back to being called a Tauris? Alan better get back to the drawing board and off the sales floor. And Alan-you ARE going to miss your Lexus! 2006 Lexus LS430 sells new for $57,175. One year later it still brings back to it's proud owner $50,800, or a most impressive 88.8% of it's original cost. On the other hand, a 2006 Lincoln Town Car Signature L sold for $51,345. And only 1 year later limps in at a total return of $35,500. That's only 69.1% of what I would describe as a total ripoff. And now Lincolns are imports from Mexico as well!
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far jr 9:49PM (3/27/2007)
Gerry, you're correct with the origins of the Fusion, but you are not 100 percent correct on the origins of the Camry. The "domestic" Camrys may meet your description of 75 percent US content. You always find it convenient to mention tose stats when relating to the Fusion, HHR, and Hemis. But you always "conveniently" neglect to mention that about 1 in four Camrys cannot be called domestically produced. Many Camrys (as well as Fits, Corollas, Civics, Scions, etc.) are still shipped in from overseas... but I guess that doesn't help validate your argument so it isn't mentioned. What percentage of US content is in a Honda Fit?
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airport krishna 9:58PM (3/27/2007)
So what's next in this reversal of fortunes - the shop floor worker running the company for a day? Maybe then some sensible, visionary decisions would actually get made!
This is fine for a Mulally PR stunt, but it's like so many things the Fordies do - it's all for quick fixes with no consistent long term plan. Whether it's "back to basics" or the "road to recovery" they've got a slogan for whatever the next "way forward" is. Not.
Watch an email come out from the CEO's office soon that says, "I can sell 3 cars in 40 minutes, why can't you?"
Where is the substance in all this? Hmmmm, not so much.
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mkorzeniowski 10:09PM (3/27/2007)
Everyone should should sell cars for month or two. They would have a lot more respect for car salespeople.
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Tony 10:16PM (3/27/2007)
Daniel-
Are you sure about that? The Prius had alot of tax write offs attached to a sale and know those have been reduced and demand has really fallen. Now they are offered with rebates and their sales are still off. I don't know if anyone will get this market because it seems many automakers are interested in other technologies like fuel cells.
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david 10:15PM (3/27/2007)
Facts on content:
Ford Fusion assembled in Mexico with 30% to 46% domestic (US) content.
Camry assembled in US, 45% US content, 55% other than US inclusive of Mexico, Indonesia, Formosa, Tiawan and Japan. Engine components manufactured in Japan and assembled in USA.
Camry assembled in Japan, 80% to 100% content from Japan, in some 20% from Indonesia, Formosa and Japan.
Last data claims 1 in 3 Camrys are now imported from Japan.
The only Lincoln that is assembled in Mexico is the MKZ along with the Mercury Milan. Town car is assembled in Canada and is scheduled for a makeover and will be assembled in the US.
So Gerry, do you just make things up as you go? Check your information before you babble, or make that check your babble before you post. Try to understand that the internet makes for a good lie detector and you're busted.
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