According to Dow Jones, Ford executives were seen at the North American International Auto Show at Detroit with smiles and grins that were almost completely missing from last year’s show.
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The news agency said the Ford people won’t say exactly why they’re in such a good mood, and have been elusive when it comes to talking about their 2004 outlook. They reportedly say they’re holding out for Friday, when the company will discuss its views for the year with investors.
But it’s clear that 2003 ended better than they expected it would – and they see 2004 also being a good year, Dow Jones added.
“It’s a much different feeling from last year and the year before,” Ford’s North American marketing, sales and service vice president, Jim O’Connor, told the news agency.
Dow Jones noted that this time last year, the mood was radically different as Ford had just seen out a dismal 2002 – the company lost $130 million in the fourth quarter alone and announced a five-year restructuring plan to help get it back on its feet.
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Ford Five Hundred |
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While Ford officials were promising things would pick up by the end of the year – even pledging to do cut costs while increasing capital expenditures by $1 billion – few were buying what Ford was selling, the report said.
“I think we’re all feeling pretty good,” the company’s president and chief operating officer, Nick Scheele, told Dow Jones on Monday.
The report said Scheele said he thinks industry-wide sales could hit over 17 million cars and trucks in 2004. Ford’s sales are starting of “very, very well”, Scheele reportedly said, with strong sales of the newly redesigned Ford F-150 pickup truck.
According to Dow Jones, Scheele also said that more than two million cars and trucks sold this year are expected to be from vehicles the company launched within the last 18 months.
Two new sedan launches – the Ford 500 and the Mercury Montego – should help bolster sales where the Ford Taurus has faltered and the company is also pinning high hopes that consumer excitement will bust out over the 2005 Mustang and the Ford Freestyle crossover sport utility wagon.
Also helping their outlook is strong consumer confidence figures and a bullish stock market, Dow Jones added.
