Quote:
Originally Posted by GatorBlue371
I dont think thats true at all. See Ford prey's on what i call stupid-sales.
let me elaborate.
A Stupid sale, is a purchase made without proper research and comparative test drives. A stupid sale could be made as a result of a moron seeing a comercial, somone trying to buy a car for the image, or more commonly the price tag.
The mustang benefits from all of these aspects of 'stupid sales', they offer cheap cars because they are made cheaply using cheaper products and outdated suspensions, and they pull in a ton of sales that way.
The Mustang is seen as a status symbol for kids going into highschool who dont know any better. This is where the status symbol/poser aspect comes into play. The Mustang is no better than any of its main competitors but will outsell them because of stupid-sales coming from people chasing an icon that was really only worth it in the 60's. People that do their homework don't end u with mustangs unless they are on a budget, or they have a personal history with them. I quote motortrend after driving the 370z, "Do kids really still aspire to own Mustangs???"
Im not saying their.. strategy... isnt effective. But its almost like making lemonade on the street corner, and filling the jar up with water when it dips down to the half way point. Yes, you will make more sales, however people who are watching what your doing closely loose respect for you in the process and take their buisness elseware. Lucky for Ford no one who buys mustangs for anything but drag is watching that closely. Its time to grow up Ford, lets see a decent IRS system and a 6-speed.
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Call it "stupid-sales" or whatever you want, but at the end of the day, like you said, they still sell a boat-load of cars which, coincidentally, is what they are in business to do.
The fact of the matter is, kids I know (and I know a lot considering I have a 12 year-old in the house and his friends are around all the time) don't aspire to own Mustangs
or Camaro's. They are star-struck with the exotics and other high-end sports cars. Since a real car is not an immediate reality for kids of that age, budget and price never into the equation. When they finally do reach the age where they can get their license, they still aspire to those same high-end cars, but the reality of economics comes into play and they are forced to "settle" for lesser cars like the Camaro or Mustang. Since the Mustang has historically been the more affordable of the two, sales tends to go the Mustangs way.
It's not like GM has not known this for decades, yet they still continue to try and out-do Mustang sales by offering what is, by all research, a better or more refined car, but at the expense of price. In the end, it is the price comparison that hurts the Camaro sales, not the final product.
You and 100,000+ other GM/Camaro enthusiasts getting online and continually bashing the Mustang for it's perceived shortcomings is not going to change that reality. In the end, either GM has to figure out a way to offer the better car at the same price point as its competition or they will always play second-fiddle to the Mustang in terms of overall sales. Unfortunately, as I'm sure you will agree, the general public is not an truly informed bunch. Few have any desire to reserach anything and the majority just regurgitate what they have heard from somewhere else. That's true in politics and it's just as true in the world of car buying.