Ford: Our Incentives Are Still Lower Than Overall Segment

Aaron Cole
by Aaron Cole

A Ford spokesman said Friday that despite the automaker offering nearly $11,000 on particular F-150 models, their incentives are still under the segment average.

“It’s not like every F-150 customer walking into a Ford dealer today — whether they’re in L.A. or New York — is going to get $10,000 off of every single model,” Truck Communications Manager Mike Levine said.

“On average, we’re lower than the segment.”

Levine said the $10,819 we reported on yesterday was a specific truck in a specific area. Those numbers, such as $7,050 off, that Ford publicizes on its website aren’t indicative of every incentive available.

“That’s a very specific set of incentives that are all stacked together that gets you to $10,000,” he said.

According to Ford, those incentives include: $3,769 average dealer discount; $500 customer cash; $1,000 XLT customer cash; $300 2.7-liter V6 EcoBoost bonus cash; $2,000 302A XLT Luxury Chrome or Sport packages.; $2,500 bonus cash; and $750 Ford Credit Bonus Cash, which requires Ford Credit financing.

Levine said the average incentive offered on a F-150 is $3,354, which is $800 lower than the segment average and lower than the automaker had offered one year ago.

Dealer inventories are down, Levine said, and Ford needs to stay competitive.

“For this particular truck, we’re helping customers get into a better truck. It’s something that we do from time-to-time, and it’s in line with what our competitors do,” he said.

Representatives from Ram and General Motors didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Aaron Cole
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  • Jeff S Jeff S on Jul 17, 2015

    I believe you will see even more incentives on the F-150. GM and Ram have both been gaining market share and will keep the manufacturer incentives going at least through the end of the year. Mike Levine is going to put a positive spin on the F-150 and will not tell the public if Ford is planning any additional incentives.

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    • Sunridge place Sunridge place on Jul 18, 2015

      No freakin' way....a Ford PR guy won't tell the public about future incentive programs? The nerve of that guy.

  • Bd2 Bd2 on Jul 19, 2015

    Really not that surprising. GM had the same issue when its trucks were new. Aside from the higher-end buyers who opt for the top trim/loaded models, more and more of the mainstream buyer are price/bargain-conscious and just buy from whatever automaker/dealer is offering the best deal (esp. as there are numerous options with one not being much better than the other these days). Coinciding with this is the ever increasingly short period that an automaker can expect to get a "premium" for the volume trim(s) of a new model (probably 2-3 months tops these days). Many buyers would just rather opt for the previous generation that an automaker has been selling off at deep discounts (saw sales of the old Honda Pilot rise as buyers flocked to the good deals).

    • DeadWeight DeadWeight on Jul 21, 2015

      It may or may not be surprising, but it IS serious, and distinguishable from GM's p/u slow launch for the following reasons: 1) Ford is without question spending more to source components (e.g. aluminum body panels) for these trucks, in addition to retooling their F Series lines in a much more comprehensive and expensive manner than GM did, when it launched their new Silverado/Sierra, making the new F Series more expensive to produce (these costs will be amortized "down" over time - with the exception that the aluminum body panels may not fall in sourcing cost as rapidly, or maybe even at all - so that each additional truck produced costs less "more" to produce, but the initial production run is likely to be very much more expensive than GM's counterparts). 2) This is Ford's literal franchise, as mentioned before, accounting for a rumored as-much-as 88% of Ford's global profits. If this new F Series is not as successful as the last generation in terms of profitability, market share, and very importantly, it damages Ford's reputation for building the kind of truck that long time Ford F Series buyers value, it will devastate Ford (Ford went big, here). 3) We don't know the true level of incentive spending currently (IMO), and the product mix in terms of the trim levels of F Series being ordered/floorplanned by Ford dealers, but if the F Series loyalists sour on this latest iteration of Ford's money maker, and worse yet, defect in significant numbers to competitors' pickups, there's extreme risk for Ford - so much so that Ford would be smart to go to any lengths in terms of incentives, service, warranties, etc., to stem that defection (on a truck that is costlier to produce than the competition, mind you). *It's objectively true that the new F Series is not performing in real life driving as Ford promised in terms of fuel economy, by the way (CR eked out a mere 1mpg gain with a 2.7 ecoboost vs a 5.3 liter Silverado in real world driving), and so Ford has shifted discussion of the benefits of the aluminum body panel fabrication to payload and towing benefits. There's also much evidence that some Ford loyalists are not as keen on FI in their gasoline trucks and prefer normally aspirated motors. Reliability, long-term, of the ecoboost in the F Series, is a real risk for Ford, in addition to the higher cost of body/structure repair.

  • ToolGuy This might be a good option for my spouse when it becomes available -- thought about reserving one but the $500 deposit is a little too serious. Oh sorry, that was the Volvo EX30, not the Mustang. Is Volvo part of Ford? Is the Mustang an EV? I'm so confused.
  • Mikey My late wife loved Mustangs ..We alway rented one while travelling . GM blood vetoed me purchasing one . 3 years after retirement bought an 08 rag top, followed by a 15 EB Hard top, In 18 i bought a low low mileage 05 GT rag with a stick.. The car had not been properly stored. That led to rodent issues !! Electrical nightmare. Lots of bucks !! The stick wasn't kind to my aging knees.. The 05 went to a long term dedicated Mustang guy. He loves it .. Today my garage tenant is a sweet 19 Camaro RS rag 6yl Auto. I just might take it out of hibernation this weekend. The Mustang will always hold a place in my heart.. Kudos to Ford for keeping it alive . I refuse to refer to the fake one by that storied name .
  • Ajla On the Mach-E, I still don't like it but my understanding is that it helps allow Ford to continue offering a V8 in the Mustang and F-150. Considering Dodge and Ram jumped off a cliff into 6-cylinder land there's probably some credibility to that story.
  • Ajla If I was Ford I would just troll Stellantis at all times.
  • Ronin It's one thing to stay tried and true to loyal past customers; you'll ensure a stream of revenue from your installed base- maybe every several years or so.It's another to attract net-new customers, who are dazzled by so many other attractive offerings that have more cargo capacity than that high-floored 4-Runner bed, and are not so scrunched in scrunchy front seats.Like with the FJ Cruiser: don't bother to update it, thereby saving money while explaining customers like it that way, all the way into oblivion. Not recognizing some customers like to actually have right rear visibility in their SUVs.
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