Ford Motor Revs Up Its Array Of High-Performance Models
By NORIHIKO SHIROUZU Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
DETROIT Sept. 4.-- Ford Motor Co., looking to put more pizazz in its aging U.S. vehicle lineup, will announce
Wednesday that it is gearing up to offer a broader array of high-performance models across all three of its
North American brands.
Ford has scored small-scale hits with high-performance Special Vehicle Team, or SVT, versions of its
Mustang coupe, Ford F-150 pickup and Ford Focus subcompact. But the SVT Mustang Cobra, SVT F-150
Lightning and SVT Focus have been relatively low-volume products confined to the Ford brand.
Though the SVT version of the Focus came out early this year, the other two first hit the road in the early
1990s. Typically, these cars have higher horsepower, stiffer suspensions and features reminiscent of race
cars.
The No. 2 U.S. auto maker is expected to announce Wednesday in Chicago a more aggressive strategy
to tap what is known in the auto industry as the "vehicle personalization" market. Ford wants to boost its share
of this multibillion-dollar business, offering high-performance models in its Lincoln and Mercury brands as
well as its Ford brand. The SVT name, however, will remain exclusive to the Ford brands. The company
hasn't disclosed what performance badges it will use on Lincoln and Mercury models.
Though Ford's SVT models have carved out a niche among automotive enthusiasts, the auto maker faces
stiff competition as it tries to take a bigger bite out of the growing vehicle-personalization market.
That market has its origins in Southern California, where Hispanic and Asian youngsters began modifying
foreign cars, mostly Honda Motor Co.'s Civic, into hot rods -- a trend that began catching on more broadly in the early 1990s.
More recently, Ford's cross-town rivals accelerated efforts to cash in on the vehicle-personalization trend:
DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group in January set up a dedicated operation, and General Motors Corp.
followed in July.
Jim O'Connor, Ford group vice president in charge of North American operations, said the company's new
strategy will address four areas of specialty business: performance vehicles souped up with more horse
power and sporty features to attract driving enthusiasts; personalized, "buzz" products such as the Midnight
Escape sport-utility vehicle with an all-black interior; performance parts and accessories; and Ford's racing
activities.
Aside from selling complete performance and personalized vehicles, Mr. O'Connor believes "there is a huge
opportunity in marketing performance parts and accessories," he said. "It's a huge business, but we don't
focus on it today." According to industry estimates, sales of after-market performance parts and accessories
reached $26 billion in the U.S. in 2001.
Ford, which is struggling to cut costs after posting a loss of more than $5 billion for last year, will consolidate
these areas of its business, currently run as separate business units, into a single unit.
While this market continued to grow, Ford stuck with a limited number of performance products, even
though it began producing such products nearly a decade ago.
Ford's special performance vehicles have been limited to the Ford brand, and have been produced in small
model runs of about 10,000 to 13,000 vehicles a year. By 2003, the SVT group hopes to build 24,000
vehicles, including three- and five-door SVT Focus models.
Ford has no souped-up special versions of Lincoln or Mercury vehicles, while other luxury brands such as
Mercedes, BMW, Lexus and Acura recently began pumping out sporty, performance versions of their cars
to burnish their brands. When Ford launched the redesigned Mercury Marauder this summer and positioned
it as a muscle car, the company didn't offer any special performance version, but it would seem a likely
candidate now that Ford is unveiling this division.
Dan Gorrell, a marketing consultant at Strategic Vision in San Diego, says there are examples of auto makers
that have used high-performance models successfully to improve the image of their brands. He cites Fuji
Heavy Industries Ltd.'s Subaru, which has scored a hit with its high-performance Impreza WRX models.
But Mr. Gorrell warns that performance vehicles can be a useless exercise unless their sporty characteristics
are "tied properly ... in a very significant way" to the rest of a brand's product line or a brand.
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$26 billion in aftermarket performance products per year...just a small piece of that pie would do nicely. |
