Auto/Motor Cars Space: 2009 Ford F-150 Pickup Truck Arrives Amid Crisis

On a recent Monday after work, Rob Henderson, 35, a machinist from Sumpter Township, stood in the showroom of Village Ford in Dearborn with his arms crossed and his eyes fixed on the all-new 2009 Ford F-150, the franchise product at Ford Motor Co.

The new truck, built at the Kansas City Assembly Plant in Missouri and locally at the Dearborn Truck Plant, just started arriving in dealerships nationwide and is officially launching this week -- during one of the worst economic crises in U.S. history.

Standing there in his jeans and ball cap, Henderson admired the chrome grille with the eagerness of a boy yearning for a new toy.

In the glimmer of his serious adult eyes, though, anxiety about the new truck was evident.

"We just can't afford one right now," Henderson's wife, Julie, explained. "It's been a very slow year."

Rob Henderson works for an auto supplier that makes parts for the F-Series, and sales of the truck are down 26.9% this year -- meaning less work for Henderson and thousands of others.

Given the volatile U.S. economy, Henderson knows that many would-be pickup customers, like him, will likely be reluctant to buy a new truck in this environment, too, no matter how spectacular or enticing it is.

But despite all the doom and gloom, Henderson tried to maintain optimism for the F-150 and the future it holds for Ford -- and for him.

"It should do well," Henderson said. "It's always been a great seller."

Indeed.

For the past 31 years, the F-Series pickup line -- which includes the top-selling F-150 model -- has been the best-selling truck in America.

The F-Series is widely regarded as America's workhorse on wheels, a popular tool for people who build and fix this country's homes, roads and buildings, who rescue victims from hurricanes, floods and other disasters, who herd the nation's cattle and harvest our food, who keep the economy chugging along.

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Things have changed

All of that F-Series success, of course, was before.

Before "the world changed," as Executive Chairman Bill Ford has said.

Before gas prices shot up. Before the housing crisis. Before the credit crisis. And long before Wall Street turned up its nose, as it did last week, at the Bush administration's $700-billion bailout plan for the U.S. financial system.

All these developments have taken a serious bite out of full-size pickup sales, as consumers seek more fuel-efficient cars and crossovers.

Over the past three years, full-size pickup sales in the United States have fallen 36%. F-Series sales have fallen an even greater 43.5%.

That has caused Ford's share of the full-size truck market to drop to 31.6% for the first nine months of the year, down from 35.9% during the same period three years ago. The F-Series' lead as the best-selling truck, or vehicle, in America has consequently been slipping, too.

That means Ford's new F-150 is going to be putting its "Built Ford Tough" motto to the test in this market.

Given its longtime success, the importance of this new truck to Ford cannot be overstated.

Ford lost $8.6 billion through the first half of the year, after losing $15.3 billion over the previous two years. It has borrowed against virtually every asset it owns to secure the cash needed to revive the company.

The F-Series still makes up more than one-fourth of the company's total sales volume in the United States -- 27% last year -- and, experts say, a disproportionate share of the company's revenues.

A sorely needed hit

For the health of Ford, the F-150 needs to succeed.

In 2004 and 2005, the two years that followed the launch of the last redesigned F-150, F-Series sales in the United States topped a whopping 900,000. The new truck was so popular that even Americans who didn't need a truck -- people the industry labels "style" buyers -- rushed to get decked-out King Ranch SuperCrew trucks, often topping $40,000.

That kept F-150 plants in Dearborn, Kansas City and Norfolk, Va., and their 7,000 workers busy. And it kept profits rolling into Ford, which made a combined $4.5 billion those two years.

But sales of full-size pickups, and the F-Series, started to wane in 2006, after gas prices started rising and the housing market started to slow. Style buyers began trading out of the trucks they didn't need for more fuel-efficient models.

Given that full-size pickup sales are also considered an indicator of future economic conditions -- because of how they are used by workers -- it was a troubling development and a hint of tougher times to come.

Ford slashed F-Series production by record levels that year and announced it would close its Norfolk plant.

By the end of 2006, full-size pickup sales fell 9.9% and Ford sold just 796,000 F-Series trucks, a decline of 11.7% over the prior year.

And they've been dropping ever sense.

In May, the F-Series was even outsold by four Japanese cars. The Honda Civic claimed the No. 1 spot, followed by the Toyota Corolla, Toyota Camry and Honda Accord.
The F-Series finished fifth.

"May and June were pretty teeth-crunching," Andy Carranza, sales manager at Grande Truck Center in San Antonio, told the Free Press. Texas is the biggest full-size truck market in America.

Because of the troubling market conditions, Ford postponed the launch of the new F-150 by several months.

Since then, pickup sales have steadied.

But now, it's officially launch time -- and it's easy to see why Ford workers and suppliers are nervous.

The F-Series is entering a new and different market.

Focusing on function

Jim Farley, Ford's group vice president for marketing and communications, said that Ford would market the truck to customers who need it most for work, focusing more than ever on the capability and improvements.

There are 2,200 changes to the 2009 model, which will allow Ford to boast more towing and payload capability than any of its rivals.

Ford also has significant technology pitches to bring to market with Ford Works, a special package of technology aimed at people who use their truck for work, and Sync wireless entertainment and communications technology.

Marketing to core truck buyers, however, means building and selling a different mix of body styles than in the past -- with an emphasis on combinations that are likely to bring in less money.

For example, two-door styles and SuperCabs, with rear half-doors, are more popular among core truck buyers than the more expensive four-door SuperCrew models, Farley noted.

"We going to be more aggressive at the lower end of the market, I think, than we have been for a while," Doug Scott, Ford's truck group marketing manager, said Tuesday.

Even though that will mean less revenue for Ford, Carranza said the good thing about Ford's strategy is that it will attract more of the volume truck buyers left in the truck market.

"The people who need them for work are going to buy what they need," Carranza said.

Rich Motley, owner of R&M Landscaping and Irrigation in Dearborn, agreed. He has 75 pickup trucks in his company's fleet and intends to buy a few new F-150s to add to his lineup, even though business has slowed a bit.

"I like it," he said of the truck, after he and a few of his employees looked one over at Village Ford in Dearborn.

But Ford won't be getting the same kind of revenue from Motley that it has gotten in the past from style buyers.

Motley said he exclusively buys 2-door regular cab and crew cab pickups for his business: "no frills."

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