Monday, February 13, 2006

Citing new data, automaker to ask GM to pull its ads touting Chevy as No. 1 brand in U.S.

Brett Clanton / The Detroit News

Ford wants its sales crown back from Chevy and says it has the numbers to prove it.

Ford Motor Co. said Sunday it has obtained new data showing that its Ford brand actually sold more cars and trucks than any other vehicle marque in 2005. Today, Ford plans to ask General Motors Corp. to retract its much-touted claim that Chevrolet is the country's top-selling brand.

Ford said it is basing its move on recent vehicle registration figures compiled by Southfield-based research firm R.L. Polk & Co., which reflect that Ford beat Chevy by 5,000 vehicles last year. Polk officials could not be reached Sunday to confirm the figures.

The numbers appear to conflict with year-end sales reports by GM and Ford, which showed that Chevy overtook Ford for the first time since 1986 -- a claim that Chevy has made the centerpiece of new advertisements.

While Ford has not disputed the year-end sales numbers, it says the Polk data should be treated as the "industry standard" and that Chevy should pull ads saying it is the U.S. sales leader.



"We will be contacting GM as early as Monday to ask them to withdraw all of their leadership claims for the Chevrolet brand," said Ford spokesman Jim Cain.

But GM said there should be no question Chevy beat Ford in 2005.

"We stand by our numbers," said Deborah Silverman, a GM spokeswoman.

The battle for bragging rights come as both Ford and GM are looking for good news to tout amid persistent market share losses, red ink in North America and recent announcements of factory closings and job cuts.

Silverman said GM's sales numbers are backed up by Ward's AutoWorld, a Southfield-based industry trade publication that she said is the "agreed upon standard" for sales data.

While GM uses Polk to bolster other leadership claims -- such as Chevy's claim that its Tahoe is the best-selling large SUV -- she said the firm's sales data fluctuate from month-to-month in part because of a lag in the way it counts sales for certain periods.

The situation raises questions about what consumers should believe when companies blare superlatives at them. But it also shines a light on the sometimes murky business of tabulating U.S. auto sales.

While seemingly straightforward, automakers often release figures that are out of sync with those provided by independent research firms.

Some of that discrepancy can be accounted for by the different methods of comparing year-over-year sales figures or how sales are categorized.

But in this case, Ford claims that Polk's process of tabulating state-provided vehicle registration data is a more accurate reflection of how many vehicles wound up in customers' hands, compared with sales numbers the manufacturer reports, which come from dealers and are also the basis for Ward's AutoWorld.

One analyst said Ford and GM are quibbling over small potatoes.

"Is this really a critical issue when they're in the financial shape they're in?" said Rebecca Lindland with Global Insight Inc.

GM and Ford lost money, sales and U.S. market share last year in the face of weakening demand for profitable SUVs and increased foreign competition. Both have launched turnaround plans that will cut a combined 60,000 hourly workers and close more than a dozen factories.

Eager to accentuate the positive, the companies fought hard in 2005 for the title of America's top-selling brand. While Ford has owned the claim for more than 20 years, Chevy sold 20,000 more cars and trucks than the Blue Oval brand in 2005, according to GM and Ford's year-end sales releases. The victory is the focal point of Chevy's new ads, which alternately refer to Chevy as America's best-selling brand or, simply, as "America's #1 brand. America's #1 value."

But Ford told its dealers Sunday that the new Polk data proves the Blue Oval brand is still king in its home market.

"When they told us, it got a very, very enthusiastic response from the audience," said Joe Holman, a Ford dealer in Mount Laurel, N.J., who attended the closed-door meeting at the National Automobile Dealers Association convention in Orlando, Fla.

Morale among Ford dealers had fallen after reports that Chevy had won the sales race last year, Holman said. But dealers left the Sunday meeting with a renewed sense of optimism about the brand's future.

Cain said the dispute is not about sour grapes on Ford's part. Rather, it is more about holding competitors accountable for what they tell consumers. Still, he acknowledges Ford's time may be better spent comparing itself to Nissan Motor Co., Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. rather than only its traditional Detroit rivals.

"To us, the Ford versus Chevy race is a remnant of the old Big Three mind-set," Cain said. "We're managing our business to emerge a winner in the Big Six shootout, and it means looking farther east than Jefferson Avenue to measure ourselves."

source : detnews

 

They can continue to spend money arguing with each other on who's #1 while Toyota passes them both this year.

 

Like kids on the playground

 

VW is starting to get into spats here in Mexico about who is #1, as the quality issue is starting to creep up with the arrival of many Japanese brands.

 

Besides, how can you even DEFINE Ford and GM any more, numbers-wise? : Both of them at least partially own several European and Japanese firms, and those numbers may affect the sales totals as well. And, since you bring Toyota up, it is getting equally hard to define Toyota as well, when you consider everything Toyota owns.....Scion, Lexus, Daihatsu, and at least part of Subaru.

Traditional ways of defining and measuring auto companies and corporate wealth are becoming more and more meaningess in today's global automotive world.