Ford F-150 Marketing Manager Checking In

[BuiltFordTough]

Mark,

I have a question about two things, firstly... what was behind the decision not to badge the 6.2? Second, I have heard that many previous SVT vehicles have documents and the like that highlight the "Specialness" of a Special Vehicle Team product. Are there any such things available for the Raptor?

Thanks,

Falcon

I just did another post on the badge. On the documents... Certificates of Authenticity are typically available at the end of the model year thru Ford Racing.

 

[SVTRay]

Given that TX buys nearly 20% of all full size pickups - we focus a lot of attention making sure we satisfy the pickup loving Texans. I worked in Ford's TX regional office prior to my current position and I try to return to TX several times a year. The top markets are just as we expected prior to launch - Vegas, Phoenix, TX and SoCal.

Everyone on my block owns a Ford truck...that may have something to do with being neighbors with the local Ford dealer

Seriously though, the F350 is the work horse here in West Texas! You can't drive a block without running across one. Just about every oil field operation around here is running a fleet of F250s or F350s. These guys beat the hell out of their trucks and they take every bit of it! I don't deal with production thus I don't need the payload, so I drive an F150. My last F150 was a Supercharged Harley edition :mrgreen: The ONLY reason I sold that truck was to buy a Raptor. I loved that truck but I fell in love with the Raptor! I'm excited to get it out in the West Texas desert!

 

[jesse]

Good question. It's something we're analyzing but we have no announcements at this time. We did increase the capacity after the 5.4L launch.

In the US, the 6.2L F-150 SVT Raptor is selling in 8 days on average! It's also a big hit in Canada and our export markets. The Raptor has been the hottest selling car or truck since launch. Regarding capacity, I think there's a fine balance between building too many or not enough. We've always wanted to limit the production on the Raptor, like Ford has done on other SVT products. We want the SVT vehicles to be truly special and not over saturate the market. I like the Ferrari strategy of building 1 less than demand.

The F-150 SVT Lightning was considered a huge success and despite the lower industry sales and tough economy this year we'll sell more F-150 SVT Raptors than our best year of Lightning sales. Pretty amazing.

We're going to make sure that we continue to keep the Raptor fresh - this includes adding the 6.2L, SuperCrew and more....

Thats good to know you guys are thinking about keeping the Raptor a limited truck...I understand it can be great for sales, but im enjoying the hell out of the raptor being so exclusive. Regular F150's sell great as is...but its nice knowing you wont over saturate the auto industry with this truck....Im sure if it was GM, they would sell it like a 3 dollar ******! and if it was Toyota, they would mark it up another 10 grand...and Chrysler....well they might have just sold the design to god who knows lol

 

[jesse]

I just did another post on the badge. On the documents... Certificates of Authenticity are typically available at the end of the model year thru Ford Racing.

Mark, one quick question...I dont know if this is possible or not, but i learned this from a friend that is huge into Corvettes...what they are offering their customers is the cars "blue prints" How or is it even possible for us to order such documents of the SVT raptor? I thought of it as an excellent idea. Thats one vehicle GM does right by...and thats the Corvette, its pretty cool to see what they offer to their customers...and of course the customers pay for everything, which i wouldnt mind paying for it as well...but im not even sure if something like this can be available?

 

[NoCaDiver]

I also like the thought of keeping the Raptor a limited production vehicle, though this might not be shared by all. It was one of the assumptions I had when I purchased my Raptor, basing it on the limited production of past SVT vehicles. These were always the vehicles to have as I was growing up but I could never manage to afford one, must have been my military pay and kids.

I'm glad I own such a detour of the SVT team and take pride in knowing that I won't see one at every stop light...even when I'm driving one of my other vehicles. To date I have seen one black Raptor while in Carolina Beach...that seems just about right for me. Maybe I am being a little self-centered but I have never had the opportunity to own something as low production and brand new.

Albeit the lowest production vehicle I drove was a '99 Pontiac Firebird Formula Ram-Air of which only 175 examples in my color and transmission options were produced but it was a used vehicle with a lot of miles...and it was NOTHING LIKE my Raptor.

Of course I am just one of many Raptor owners and I am sure opinions/thoughts will vary. I would just hate to see the sales numbers and dollar signs outweigh the "exclusivity" of owning an SVT vehicle, but in the end business is business. Long live the dream.

 

[AuPanda]

Just having folks like you drive the truck around town creates a lot of awareness and excitement as people see the truck and want to know what it's all about. Thanks - you're helping with our advertising!

Just yesterday filling the tank up at the local Costco, the attendant and two patrons were asking me about the truck. My favorite comment came from the attendant who said, "That's a stock truck? With Fox racing shocks? Yea, right..."

 

[SVTRay]

I also like the thought of keeping the Raptor a limited production vehicle, though this might not be shared by all.

I'm of the same opinion.

High production means lower cost which is nice but not when you have already shelled out 50k.

 

[MagicMtnDan]

It's great to hear that Raptor sales have been so strong.

I like the idea of limited production a lot. But higher production quantities would mean higher sales = more profit for Ford. And that's something Ford and it's satisfied customers (us) all want.

 

[bstoner59]

It's great to hear that Raptor sales have been so strong.

I like the idea of limited production a lot. But higher production quantities would mean higher sales = more profit for Ford. And that's something Ford and it's satisfied customers (us) all want.

I'm not sure Ford makes much money on the Raptor...the way SVT cars have been explained to me is Ford produces them more to create excitement for the brand not to make money. That's why there is no marketing put into cars like the GT, Cobra, Lightning and Raptor.

 

[frogslinger]

Also from an economics and accounting standpoint you van run into diseconomies of scale fairly rapidly... especially on a product originally designed for limited production... I a sure if ford really wanted to ramp up they would want to feel the fiberglass parts of the truck in metal... fiberglass costs less in small batches but metal is better in large ones... the middle ground is very murky...

You also run into supplier problems... if fox was originally tapped for 25k shocks per year (6250 trucks) and you then up it to 120k a year they may not be able to keep up. If they do quality control will suffer.

On that subject, I guarantee the Raptor is going to have more problems per unit than a regular f150. The limited number units means that these problems will be lesser burden to ford financially and will be restricted to bleeding edge customers, who are more likely to accept a few rough edges to have the best of the breed.

More trucks also meandering more dealer inventories, which means more incentives, which means less profit per truck... it means less prestige... which means dealers are.not going to get. Sri let for heir units, which hurts our resale... it means higher required parts inventories which amounts to higher overhead...
More is generally not better... more is just more... it is the problem that Chrysler especially is having, as is GM to a lesser extent. If you build them they will come, but will expect 10k off of sticker... hell I waited a few months to order mine and my price went from thousands over sticker to hundreds over invoice, and that is with the relatively low production.

The secret to in inventory management for a luxury product is to have a steady supply and just enough on hand below actual real demand to have people hungry enough to wait but not have to wait so long they buy their toys elsewhere. Dearborn seems to have this well on hand. With this truck at least.