New vehicle inventory, in general, has remained at some alarmingly high levels for months now, even amid strong sales. This phenomenon doesn’t apply to every brand, per se, but rather, there are some big variances between them. This continued to be the case in November 2024, as new Ford inventory levels remained among the highest in the industry – a trend that has perpetuated for months now – though certain other brands, like Honda, Toyota, and Subaru – are seemingly doing a much better job of keeping inventory levels at a more reasonable level. This was also the case in December as well, it seems.
According to new data from Cox Automotive, Ford ranked eighth in terms of having the highest days’ supply of inventory among any automotive brand in the U.S. last month at 113 days – though that is an improvement from November’s 125 days, at least. Regardless, it also ranks Ford only behind Jaguar – which has a days’ supply of inventory that’s at least double the industry average of 75 – as well as Lincoln (146 days), Dodge (122 days), Buick (120 days), Mini (117 days), Nissan (116 days), and Jeep (114 days).
As for the overall U.S. market, the total supply of available unsold new vehicles at the conclusion of December was 2.88 million units, which is the first time it’s been below three million since the end of October – though that figure is also 18.1 percent higher than December 2023. This decline can be attributed at least partially to a 6.5 percent sales increase last month, helping to drop days’ supply of inventory by 14.2 percent compared to November’s levels.
It is worth noting that FoMoCo’s high inventory levels don’t apply to every model in the lineup, of course, as certain vehicles – such as the Ford Mustang Mach-E – are more abundant on dealer lots than others. However, those same elevated inventory levels are one of a few reasons why Wall Street has been a bit more bearish on The Blue Oval’s stock outlook as of late.
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Now that the word is out that Ford has non-existent quality control and is the industry leader in recalls, their inventory levels will continue to be higher than the national average. Firing Failure Farley might help in reducing inventory levels.
What would be an interesting additive to this article is the whys of the situation. Is it the product blend? Is it the cost of goods? Is it that manufacturers with lower inventories do a better job of regulating their supply chain? Do some manufacturers have a higher percentage of lease customers versus purchases? More insight would be more informative.
Raising prices daily can’t be good. My dad bought a loaded Maverick AWD (2024) for $34,500. Farley say’s “pump the brakes!! We can charge more for these!! I want to be Elon and make more per vehicle!! To heck with quality!!” That same Maverick to build on Ford’s sight today is $37k. But Farley has a plan. Raise the prices of F-150’s so that if they’re too expensive we’ll sell people Rangers, which are now what an F-150 cost 5 years ago!! If the Ranger buy is priced out, we’ll sell him a Maverick that we also raised prices on!! This might work if you had a monopoly of the industry, but Ford is quickly learning that they don’t!!