Sunset Ford Dealer Blog

As Ford has been coming out of a sales and quality slump for the past several years, the automaker has been gaining more customers and restoring its reputation. As a boost for the auto company, mogul Kirk Kerkorian is investing millions of dollars into the Ford Motor Company to boost its efforts.

Earlier this week, the investor disclosed that he acquired nearly five percent of the automaker’s stake to help Ford once again show a profit. To do this, his Tracinda Corporation investment company made an offer of $170 million for nearly 20 million shares of stock. The shares had a price of approximately $8.50 at the time of the deal.

You might be wondering why a 90-year-old billionaire would want to invest so much money into the Dearborn-based automaker. In the last few years, he’s involved himself in the auto industry by trying to buy Chrysler and invest in other automakers, too. But analysts think he wants people to remember him as one of the main investors who helped the Ford Motor Company, an icon of the United States and the auto industry as a whole, come through its troubled times.

Others say Kerkorian respects the impressive way Ford managed a comeback in such a short time, overcoming its dismal standing to regain a top industry spot. A spokesperson also stated that the investment reinforces the recognition that Alan Mulally earned by doing such a great job in turning the automaker’s situation around.

You might not be able to afford a multi-million-dollar investment in the company, but you can still purchase a vehicle from your local Ford dealer. It’s not only a great investment in Ford but also an ideal investment in your family and your future.

I don’t know if Al Gore had anything to do with this, but the Ford Motor Company and some of its biggest environmentalist critics are forging a friendship.

Environmentalists have been pressuring the major auto manufacturers to clean up their proverbial acts for several years. But did you know that Ford’s chairman is actually a self-described environmentalist, too?

Maybe that’s why the automaker is taking such great strides to be friends with others who love the environment. Last week, officials announced that Ford would work even harder to curb greenhouse-gas emissions from Ford vehicles and factories.

Neither group released any specifics of the agreement, but Ford has had plans in the works for months to improve the efficiency and cleanliness of its vehicles in the near future. Creating lighter vehicles and offering cleaner engines are only two things in the works.

If you ask me, it seems like much ado about nothing. Just last week, the Environmental Protection Agency gave the Ford Motor Company an award in recognition of its dedication to the environment. Ford reduced the greenhouse-gas emissions in its factories by nearly five percent in 2007 alone. And this is the third year in a row in which Ford received the prestigious honor for “cleaning up its act.” How much more do the environmentalists want?

Maybe they should focus on the companies that aren’t doing anything to help the environment instead of concentrating on the ones who are actively searching for more ways to be part of the solution. But that’s just my opinion. What do you think?

Have you ever wanted to own a piece of Ford’s illustrious history? If you attend the Barrett-Jackson auction in Palm Beach on March 29, you can do just that. In cooperation with Roush Performance, Ford is going to auction off its final 2008 Roush P-51A Mustang. As this is a limited-production vehicle, it’s going to be one of the featured items under the gavel.

The car isn’t going to go on the cheap, either. In the past, popular and limited edition Ford vehicles received high bids from prominent buyers. And considering that the proceeds are going to charity, people are more likely to add a zero or two to the figures in their mental checkbooks when bidding on the item.

The P-51A Mustang is a milestone for Roush. When the company announced the initial production of these vehicles, customers rushed to order them and the cars sold out in 24 hours. Number 151 is the last one remaining. Joe Thompson, general manager of Roush Performance, had this to say about the P-51A auction: “Whoever ends up with this car will truly acquire a part of Roush history.”

The charity receiving the money is Ford’s own Salute to Education Scholarship Program. This helpful program gives scholarships to college-bound students who have shown academic excellence and success within their communities. It’s a great program for those who want to continue their educations and simply can’t find enough money to do so. It’s just another way the Ford Motor Company shows that it cares for its customers and local communities.

Although automakers are prepared for a gloomy year in terms of vehicle sales, there was one bright spot for the Ford Motor Company.
The 2008 Ford Focus proved to be the best-selling model last month. The redesigned small car has Ford’s exclusive SYNC system, to which officials attribute most of its sales success.

According to Ford sales analyst George Pipas, the company’s “retail sales are on track to rise more than 30 percent in February while the year-to-date small-car market share will be up to about 7.5 percent from six percent.”

Sales for the Ford Focus rose about 33 percent in January of this year. And that’s not including sales of Ford vehicles to rental car companies and other fleet sales. But the 33-percent increase is a great surprise compared to the smaller gain of nine percent the previous month.

More of Ford’s loyal consumers are also turning to the smaller-car market because of the rising gasoline prices. Although most of Ford’s sales generally come from its truck market, this has been dwindling in the past year with gas prices at an average of $3.30 and ready to hit at least $4 a gallon this summer.

That’s why Ford is looking for smaller-car options to introduce to the market to appeal to a wider customer base. In 2010, the company will bring the Ford Fiesta to the North American market as just one effort to compete against the Asian competitors like Toyota and others. According to Pipas, succeeding in the small-car market is “so important to the future” of the company.

To pick up your new Ford Focus, please visit our Ford dealership in St. Louis, Missouri or our Ford dealers in Waterloo.

We posted a blog earlier this week about the Ford Motor Company’s new Falcon and how it’s going to be an exciting addition to the Australian auto market. But I think we only scratched the surface regarding the tremendous interest this updated model will create.  Here are some more facts about the Falcon. Even though it probably won’t be making its way to the North American market any time soon, it’s going to be one of the better Ford vehicles abroad.

• The new FG Falcon shares less than 10 percent of its new design and parts with the older models. That means it’s almost completely revamped to keep it competitive with today’s innovations.

• Engineers at Ford worked on developing this new model for about four years at a cost of nearly $500 million. Ford executives haven’t confirmed these figures, though, as they are being secretive about it.

• The unveiling at the Melbourne Convention Center was full of glitz and glamour as the automaker secretly transported the car to the venue and then dramatically lowered it from the ceiling onto a specially-designed platform.

• The Falcon comes with increased safety features, including electronic stability control as standard equipment, curtain airbags in the front and rear and better fuel efficiency than its predecessors.

According to Tom Osborn, Chief of Ford Australia, the new Falcon will likely be the single model that brings consumers back to Ford as their “dealer of choice” when it comes time to invest in a new car.

The Ford Motor Company plans to unveil one of its new crossovers at the Geneva Auto Show. In addition to all of the other Ford vehicles already on the market, this one will likely amaze those who see it for the first time.

But it’s not completely new. Ford used its existing Focus platform as the basis for its new Kuga. The European car design also draws inspiration from the 2006 Iosis X Concept, another model released by Ford and featured at the Paris Auto Show only two years ago.

For the new Kuga, Ford offers an exciting new appearance, a metallic “electric white” color for the exterior. It was the same color used on the Iosis Concept vehicle and it was a hit with that model, too.

The new Kuga will get Ford’s new 2.0-liter Duratorq TDCi turbodiesel engine. With more than 130 horsepower and a six-speed transmission, it’s going to prove to be one of the automaker’s more popular vehicles.

Unfortunately, the Kuga might not ever make it to the North American market. Right now, Ford has slated it to be sold only in Europe as a direct competitor against the Toyota Rav4 and the Honda CR-V. It will be interesting to see how the competition plays out in the upcoming months as Ford continues to put itself back on top of the worldwide auto market.

When you hear the word “fiesta,” you generally think of a party. And with the Ford Motor Company’s Fiesta model, the idea of a party isn’t too far off target.

Ford Europe is going to introduce the new and improved model at the upcoming Geneva Auto Show in March. The event takes place from March 6-16, to be exact. Although designed and developed in Europe, the Fiesta will be available for sale in markets like Asia, South Africa, Australia and the Americas between now and 2010. The Ford Fiesta is also the company’s first major product of global development, meaning that it will basically be available in its current format in a more widespread market.

According to Ford CEO Alan Mulally, the Fiesta strives to “create a world standard for small-car quality, design and comfort in a vehicle that is as exciting to drive as it is to look at.” In addition, Ford hopes that the Fiesta will bring a broader demographic to the small car market, including a younger crowd and buyers in places like Britain, Spain, and China.

But the Ford Fiesta is not new to the public. It has been around since 1976 and has enjoyed great success in the past. Last year, the model sold more than 378,000 units in Europe alone, making it the second-bestselling model after the Focus. The new Fiesta might be quite different from the older ones you remember, but the automaker wants to keep the name to build on its already successful brand recognition. Keep watching for one of these compact yet comfortable cars among the other Ford vehicles at one of our local dealerships.

The Ford Motor Company gained considerable ground in the competition for the car buyer’s money in Australia by releasing an eighth-generation FG Falcon model, its first in a decade.

According to Ford Australia president Bill Osborne, the company spent millions of dollars developing the new generation of Falcon vehicles and plans to swoop down and eat up the competition on the continent “down under.” He also said that the new Falcon would “blow away the cobwebs and reassert [Ford’s] place in Australian life: cars that say family, adventure and drivability.”

The unveiling of the much-anticipated model happened at the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre recently.

Some of the details of the Falcon haven’t been released yet, though. The sale price and the cost of development remain a mystery to the general Australian public. As the time nears for the car to be made available to the consumers, the company will disclose more information.

But officials are being “hush-hush” about the future of the Falcon market, too. Exporting is a possibility, but nobody’s announcing any plans for that so far. Mr. Osborne also wouldn’t say if the Falcon was capable of doubling the company’s sales in Australia.

The announcement for the Falcon’s release comes just after a competitor announced that it was going to close a plant in Adelaide in March of this year. That would put nearly 1,000 people out of work. Ford is hoping to have sort of a built-in workforce and market once this happens.

Unless you live in Australia, it’ll probably be difficult to get behind the wheel of one of Ford’s new Falcons. You can, however, test-drive one of the many other quality Ford vehicles at a local dealer. Stop in and try one out today!