Tuesday 21 May 2013
DEARBORN, Michigan,— The Ford Motor Company says it will not match big dealer cuts made by General Motors and Chrysler, and expects to benefit from the elimination of nearly 2,000 competing showrooms.The company’s director of North American sales, James D. Farley, said in an interview Monday that Ford had been pushing steadily to consolidate its dealers, rather than trying to end contracts or let them expire. Ford has reduced its dealer network by 700 since 2005, leaving it with 3,700 nationwide. Mr. Farley declined to specify Ford’s targets for additional reductions, but said they would be small compared with the cuts by G.M. and Chrysler.
Last week, Chrysler, which is in bankruptcy, said it would terminate nearly 800 dealers, or 25 percent of its total, by next month.G.M. said it would cut 1,100 dealers next year in the first phase of a plan to reduce its dealers by 40 percent, to about 3,600 from 5,900.
Ford is not accepting any government bailout money, in contrast to its two crosstown rivals. It is taking every opportunity to highlight the difference, even as it searches for ways to match some of the cost-cutting structural changes at G.M. and Chrysler.
Mr. Farley was particularly critical of the Chrysler plan, noting how it would affect millions of consumers with little warning.
“It seems very abrupt and unplanned,” he said. “You don’t orphan four million customers overnight without some fallout.”
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