"Tell 'im he's dreamin'"

FORD Australia president Tom Gorman has disputed claims the nation’s car market will hit a record one million sales this year.

Describing comments by Holden marketing chief Ross McKenzie that the Aussie auto sector would achieve the ‘magic million’ sales mark as a "a little bit of theatre", Mr Gorman said Ford’s forecast was far more conservative at around 955,000-960,000, which would nonetheless be a strong result.

Mr Gorman, who is also president of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, went further in arguing the importance on overall market share rather than the performance of individual models within a brand – a veiled reference to Holden’s gloating about some of its individual model lines.

In year-to-date terms, Ford’s market share is up 0.2 per cent to 13.6 per cent compared to Holden’s drop of 0.6 per cent to 18.3 per cent, while Toyota has slumped from last year’s 21 per cent to 18.7 per cent, largely credited with limited stock and the runout of its HiLux light-commercial vehicle.

"Of course we always like it to be higher but share growth is important and it’s very profitable share growth," Mr Gorman said. “It’s coming in segments that are very important for us." Mr Gorman admitted Falcon sales had softened at the hands of the new Territory.

"Even though we’ve lost 3200 Falcon sales year-on-year we’ve picked up 5800 Territory sales so net-for-net we are incrementally growing our business ... and that proves out in total market share numbers," he said.

"There has been some substitution there’s no question about it. All you would need to do is look at our employee lot. Because where everyone used to have a Falcon, now there is a mix of Falcons and Territorys. Not unlike the typical consumer." Mr Gorman said the growth of Fiesta, which sold 482 units last month, had also been more or less offset by the Focus runout in the lead-up to the new car’s arrival in June.

"We have been in the position of adding more market share in a booming industry and, yes, we’ve done that with a little bit of substitution but at least with the Ford brand our customers have something to substitute into that is a Ford. And we view that as positive." The total SUV segment is up more than 15 per cent over last year and Mr Gorman credited the Territory with providing most of that impetus.

"Territory did 2275 last month so we’re on track to hit most of our objectives this year on Territory," he said.

The Broadmeadows-built 4WD’s success has been a textbook example of getting the product, marketing and model mix right, and is one that other local producers are eyeing enviously.

Most buyers are opting for two-wheel drive variants while 45 per cent are all-wheel drive with a strong preference for high-end Ghia models – exactly how Ford Australia originally predicted it would perform.

The only surprise has been the pronounced preference for high-end models.

With its $80 million Territory export deal to South Africa, Ford is also now in a strong position to leverage the SUV into other right-hand drive markets, although it has no immediate plans to expand its export footprint.

The company plans to sell 2000 TX RWDs, Ghia RWD and AWD models to South Africa over the next 12 months.

Mr Gorman admitted the numbers were conservative.

"Our expectations are quite a bit higher in that market," he said.

Ford had also repackaged its Australian Territory television ad campaign for its South African counterparts.

In analysing the large-car segment, Mr Gorman acceded Ford still had some work to do on pushing the Falcon range, even though its performance XR models were still selling strong.

Mr Gorman (left) said it was not simply a case of throwing more marketing money at the Falcon.

"We’re trying to sell the product appeal, not just the deal," he said.

"And we have been pretty disciplined on that as a company. When you have strong product you can afford to be disciplined on that front. When your product is suffering then you have to combat it with pricing strategies ... we haven’t had to do that as aggressively as some of our competitors have had to do.

"But there are things we can do with content, there are things you can do with packaging strategies and special-edition vehicles ... and we do have a lot of tactical plans in place." Mr Gorman said the Falcon had a strong month in March but from a volume point of view "we still lost share".

"Falcon was 37.6 per cent share YTD in 2004 and is 33.6 per cent YTD this year, which equates to a 20 per cent slump," he said.

"We’re pleased from a volume viewpoint but the market share wasn’t where we need it to be. Commodore had a good month, they were aggressive, and also Magna has picked up some volume on a quarter-on-quarter basis."