Mondeo to replace Falcon wagon?

[Jason[98.EL]]

words - Ken Gratton

Ford commits to doubling Mondeo market share with fleet sales 12 months out from the Euro IV deadline for the Falcon wagon. Coincidence?
Ford is just three days away from the relaunch of its mid-size Mondeo range. The revised MB model gains more kit, a new top-grade trim level (the Mondeo Titanium) and a wagon body style for the first time. But will this upgrade and relaunch affair help the mid-size Ford's lacklustre sales?

The Mondeo has been well received by the motoring press around the country and certainly holds up its end from a product viewpoint, but it hasn't attracted the sales that some competitors in the VFACTS medium-car segment enjoy. In year to date sales for 2009, the Mondeo (2264 units) has been outsold by the aging and soon-to-be-replaced Subaru Liberty on 2642 sales for the year. Honda Accord Euro (sedan only: 3807 units), Mazda6 (5089) and Toyota Camry (10,160) all outsell the Ford by substantial margins.

Since finding a level of sales that reflects the car's critical success has proven difficult for Ford, journalists were surprised to hear Ford Australia president, Marin Burela, contend that the relaunched and mildly upgraded model will improve Mondeo's fortunes dramatically over the next year.

"What you're going to see is that Mondeo will no longer be the vehicle you've seen to date," he informed journalists at Ford's monthly briefing last week. "I'm absolutely adamant that we will double our share on Mondeo, as we progress over the next 12 months."

Doubling market share isn't the same as doubling sales. Ford could continue to sell the same number of Mondeos per month and still double its market penetration if the VFACTS medium-car segment shrunk by half. That's not impossible, but not likely either.

Car companies blame the influx of high-spec small cars for the gradual erosion of medium-segment sales over time, but in the specific case of the Mondeo, its most formidable competitor is sold in the same showroom. The Mondeo is possibly just as much a victim of its FG Falcon stablemate's sales as conquests by a competitive brand.

That situation stands to worsen once Ford introduces the EcoBoost engine for the Falcon range, scheduled for around March/April 2011. But Marin Burela doesn't believe the Falcon with EcoBoost will cannibalise sales of the Mondeo. At the announcement of the EcoBoost engine for the Falcon last month, Burela said he didn't see any overlap between Mondeo customers and those who might buy a four-cylinder Falcon.

"Completely [different], they have different needs, different wants, different lifestyle requirements, different motoring requirements..." he told the Carsales Network.

At the same forum, he declared that significantly improved sales for the Mondeo were within the company's grasp.

"We're very confident with Mondeo," he said. "Mondeo has been predominantly a private buyer's car in Australia. We're now bringing to Mondeo the wagon, we're now entering the fleet and government business -- and as far as we can see, everything we've seen so far; the enquiry level on Mondeo is very high.

"We're not going to put a number against it, but we're pretty bullish about where Mondeo's going to go over the next six to 12 months."

The key words there are "over the next six to 12 months". If Ford is anticipating a major uptake of Mondeo in the market during that timeframe, is Ford pinning its hopes on fleet sales for the wagon specifically?

A major increase in sales won't come from the Titanium-spec flagship. Nor will it come from minor specification changes to existing variants that haven't sold in huge numbers in the past. Mondeo's fuel consumption is higher than comparable variants of Epica, Accord Euro, Mazda6 and Camry, so how will Ford successfully target fleets when running costs are high on the list of purchasing criteria?

But maybe the fleets could be persuaded to take up the Mondeo wagon if it represented a substantial saving in running costs against the car they've purchased traditionally? A car like the Falcon wagon?

Compared with the aging rear-driver, the Mondeo wagon is more economical and we understand luggage capacity is better than the large car's. The Falcon currently captures about 400 sales a month, according to Burela, and transferring that number from the Falcon sales ledger to the Mondeo sales ledger would magically boost Mondeo sales by roughly 100 per cent.

Why would Ford ditch the BF III? Because it's an old platform and Ford has announced no plans to build an FG version. The engine it uses is not the upgraded FG model six that will be revised to comply with the Euro IV emissions standard by this time next year. In addition Ford has not declared that the EcoBoost engine will power the BF III model or that the liquid-injection LPG engine will find its way into the wagon's engine bay when that arrives on the scene.

In short, we're talking lots of money to upgrade or replace the BF III wagon, for sales that might be worth 400 units a month. Much more sensible to take an existing imported design that will provide better value for fleet buyers and won't cost Ford Australia a brass razoo, other than the landed cost of importing them.