Standalone FPV showrooms.

[1TUFFUTE]

Does anyone think there would be a certain amount of prestige and better brand perception if ford had a seperate showroom in a diff location with just there fpvs. They do have no ford badges on them now. Not saying you wouldnt have them at the regular dealership. obviously there would be the viability of the whole project to start with,and funds. But i think it would do wonders for the FPV brand to be seperated from the ford brand to a certain degree. everyone has too agree that the whole(but its still a ford) would deff be in the minds of alot of people when they are looking at spending over $50g on a performance or luxury car.
I think ive hit gold here for ford feel fre to knock my idea down a peg or two. :

[RedHotGT]

Originally Posted by 1TUFFUTE

They do have no ford badges on them now.

I believe the steering wheel is still FORD?

[FTE72]

did not work for Fte dealers.

[mrbaxr6t]

yes and when you park beside a taxi in your nice shiny 50k + car it still looks similar to the taxi pack that was purchased from Ford - I cant see this working until the upspec ones GT/phoon etc.. are so unlike the base ones that when you see the two (base/gt) you can't see similarities - but to do this clearly an entire car must be designed and this will push the cost to purchase both base model and upspec model much higher because they will be spending twice as much on R&D whilst making the same number of sales overall, it makes little sense to me to introduce separate dealerships to do this whilst the vehicles remain similar to the way they are now.

[geckoGT]

Originally Posted by FTE72

did not work for Fte dealers.

Worked a treat for Lexus.

[Iggypoppin']

Can't see it happening. After all, what's the first word in FPV?

[GTpilot]

Wont happen, I know of a few dealers that have threatened to discontinue FPV sales because it is not worth it for them. having to run a seperate section in the dealership will cost a lot more.

All I could see happening would be FPV removing from Ford dealers all together and opening only a couple of "specialised" FPV only dealerships in each capital city. but I doubt that would happen also.

[divine_afg]

Originally Posted by mrbaxr6t

yes and when you park beside a taxi in your nice shiny 50k + car it still looks similar to the taxi pack that was purchased from Ford - I cant see this working until the upspec ones GT/phoon etc.. are so unlike the base ones that when you see the two (base/gt) you can't see similarities - but to do this clearly an entire car must be designed and this will push the cost to purchase both base model and upspec model much higher because they will be spending twice as much on R&D whilst making the same number of sales overall, it makes little sense to me to introduce separate dealerships to do this whilst the vehicles remain similar to the way they are now.

Re-Design of front and Rear lights usually work a treat. FPV can have theirs with LED.
LED Angel lights for day time on FG would look mean.
Different Mirrors

[FPV8U]

Originally Posted by jgb

All I could see happening would be FPV removing from Ford dealers all together and opening only a couple of "specialised" FPV only dealerships in each capital city. but I doubt that would happen also.

What a PITA that would be for people who don't live in the city, nothing wrong with the way it is now, they are Fords, afterall thats why we are all interisted in them in the first place.

[Smoke Pursuit]

FPV sales are so SMALL it would never happen...

After all its still a mainstream Ford product.. If it was targeted towards a luxury / yupiie market with a pricing premium attached then maybe, but I doubt it....

It would only make the cars dearer for the end user = big no no.

As its already been said.. they tried with FTE and killed themselves, not to mention losing respect of some bigger dealers who missed out on the FTE offerings.

[Smoke Pursuit]

Originally Posted by jgb

Wont happen, I know of a few dealers that have threatened to discontinue FPV sales because it is not worth it for them. having to run a seperate section in the dealership will cost a lot more.

All I could see happening would be FPV removing from Ford dealers all together and opening only a couple of "specialised" FPV only dealerships in each capital city. but I doubt that would happen also.

The only dealers who cant sell FPVs are the ones who dont market them.. Market them and order them in the right colours (in particular F6's) and they move...

One Brisbane dealer seems to move them by the truck load..

[UNR8D]

Originally Posted by geckoGT

Worked a treat for Lexus.

lol...

good point, however i dont think you will find a pannel or swich since 2005 that is transferable from toyota to lexus bar the LX470.

as for the FPV idea, i doubt it would work, simply because HSV do just as well if not better across the board and it wouldnt justify the added expence of leasing another location + signage to enflate 2% of buyers ego's.

it wont improve resale *by much if at all* and they arnt that far seperated from their ford underpinnings to justify it.. IMO

[TUF_302]

Originally Posted by 76txcoupe

Can't see it happening. After all, what's the first word in FPV?

Exactly!, Ford performance vehicles should be sold at Ford

[geckoGT]

Originally Posted by UNR8D

lol...

good point, however i dont think you will find a pannel or swich since 2005 that is transferable from toyota to lexus bar the LX470.

as for the FPV idea, i doubt it would work, simply because HSV do just as well if not better across the board and it wouldnt justify the added expence of leasing another location + signage to enflate 2% of buyers ego's.

it wont improve resale *by much if at all* and they arnt that far seperated from their ford underpinnings to justify it.. IMO

I was not saying it was a good idea, just that it is a big call to say it could not work.

Personally I do not think it is a good idea and nor do I think Ford could manage it. It requires more brand separation than what Ford/FPV provide right now. Not sure that is what Ford are capable of nor do they have plans to in the future.

[4Vman]

Doubling the infrustructure cost would have a huge impact on retail pricing too....
"Shared" facilities has cost advantages... maybe showroom differentiation might help some dealers? but at the end of the day the product quality and "last 3 feet" determine the outcome.. not a fancy showroom.

[flappist]

Originally Posted by geckoGT

Worked a treat for Lexus.

Yeh I live in an area with 250,000 people, bugger all lexii (plural of lexus) and lots of FPVs.

Prior to FPV when the T series were all the go, I had actually never seen one outside the only showroom in Bris (metro) and then only AFTER I had been to metro and enquire why there was not a fairmont ghia with XR8 power only to be told by the "Ford" sales guy such things did not exist.
Well except for the ones in the separate showroom in the next building.
So I bought a ghia , 6 cyl because the V8 was a joke at the time.

FPV lost any chance of being thought of as a "prestigious" brand by most people (other than the zealots to whom Ford/FPV can do no wrong) the day they turned up all over Australia with blue and red disco lights.

HSV have been very smart in not allowing their range to be police, telstra or whatever vehicle (except for the media promo one off). Changing the basic look so that you cannot make fake ones easily has also gone along way to help.

Accidentally walking over to a 6 cylinder XT with a body kit and copy mags while looking for your car in a car park is a somewhat "sobering" experience.

Toyota did the same thing a few years ago. There are no more domestic Soarers pretending to be Lexii anymore.....