Ford happy to be the Ranger company
Ford New Zealand’s boss says he’s not worried that the brand’s No 1 car is a truck.
That’s because the popularity of the Ranger ute has given the company space to prepare for a major marketing push with its passenger vehicles, particularly SUVs, says Ford NZ managing director Simon Rutherford.
‘‘Ranger’s sales success is giving us time to establish a few new nameplates in our Ford lineup,’’ he says. ‘‘Research tells us that people like to remain familiar with vehicle names that have been around for a while.
‘‘But in recent times the Territory has disappeared and been replaced by the Endura; the Kuga has been replaced by the Escape; and the larger Everest has undergone a change of engine. That’s all finished now, so it’s time to amplify our car and SUV story.
‘‘Naturally we recognise there’s an imbalance in Ford’s total vehicle sales in New Zealand – but this year we have the right ingredients to change that.’’
Ford NZ can rightfully be dubbed the Ranger Company, because at present its sales are dominated by the massive success of the ute, which is easily the most popular vehicle in New Zealand.
Last year the brand ran second to Toyota in total new vehicle registrations with 16,366 sales for a 10 per cent market share, but Ranger accounted for more than 60 per cent of that total with 9904 sales.
Another 1155 of the registrations were taken up by another commercial vehicle – the Transit van – leaving the rest of the Ford new vehicle fleet to literally pick up the pieces. For that reason not one Ford was included in the list of the 15 topselling passenger vehicles in 2018.
But Rutherford is confident Ford will improve passenger vehicle sales this year. In fact it’s already happening – the Focus is the 12th most popular passenger vehicle in year-to-date registration figures to the end of February, and Escape made it on to the top 15 popularity list for the month of February.
‘‘But we’re certainly not intending to ignore the Ranger,’’ says Rutherford. ‘‘We’re perfectly happy that New Zealand’s No 1 car is a truck – and we want to keep it there.’’