Ford Sweetens its Year-End Deals
by Steve Cypher on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008Today the Dearborn-based manufacturer rolled out its new year-end incentive program that includes employee discount pricing as well as zero percent financing and a bonus plan for fuel-efficient vehicles.
Year-End Sales Incentives
As we indicated in an article yesterday at Auto Credit Express, Ford Motor Company today unveiled its year-end vehicle sales incentives. But in addition to the employee pricing already in place, the company is also promoting its most fuel-efficient vehicles with a bonus incentive of zero percent financing for 36 months from Ford Motor Credit. These vehicles include:
• Ford Focus – up to 35 mpg. Ford’s smallest North American vehicle has a 2.0 liter 4-cylinder engine that produces 140 horsepower and is available with either a five-speed manual transmission or a four-speed automatic transmission.
• Ford Fusion – up to 29 mpg. The Fusion is Ford’s mid-size car. The combined mileage figure noted is when it is equipped with the 2.3-liter, four-cylinder engine.
• Ford Escape – up to 28 mpg. This is when Ford’s small SUV is equipped with the new 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine, six-speed automatic transmission and front-wheel drive (28 mpg highway/20 mpg city).
• Ford Flex – to up 24 mpg: With front-wheel drive, the Ford Flex offers up to 24 mpg on the highway and room for up to seven passengers.
• Mercury Milan – The Fusion’s Mercury twin matches its sibling’s 29 mpg highway mileage sharing the same 2.3-liter, four-cylinder engine.
• Mercury Mariner – up to 28 mpg. As in the Escape, the new 171 hp, 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine with intake variable cam timing gains 2 mpg in highway fuel economy (versus the 2008 version) when equipped with the new six-speed transmission.
• Lincoln MKZ – up to 28 mpg. Equipped with the 3.5-liter V-6 engine, the MKZ features a six-speed automatic transmission with standard electronic stability control.
• Lincoln MKS – up to 24 mpg. Lincoln’s latest offering is one of the best Lincolns in years and is powered by a new 3.7-liter V-6 engine that is derived from the 3.5-liter V-6 found in the MKX and MKZ models
• New F-150 – up to 21 mpg. These figures are courtesy of the F-150 SFE “superior fuel economy” edition. This package includes a new six-speed automatic transmission, revised 3.15:1 rear axle ratio and 18” aluminum wheels with low rolling resistance P265/60R18 all-season tires (towing capacity rated at 7,500 pounds). One note: although the F-150 is not included in the company’s “Employee Pricing Plus” program, it is still eligible for the zero percent financing offer.
Ford “Bullish on fuel economy”
According to Ken Czubay, vice president of sales and marketing, “Ford is bullish on fuel economy. Each new and significantly freshened vehicle we’ve brought to market in the past year has the best or among the best fuel economy in its segment, and we want to provide customers an extra reason to drive one of these high-quality, fuel-efficient cars, crossovers and trucks.”
How the program works
Ford’s new incentive program begins on November 19th and will run through January 5th. In addition to employee pricing on most 2008 and 2009 Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models, cash back of up to $6,000 is also available, depending on the model. As an alternative, if one of the fuel-efficient models is chosen, customers will have the option of zero percent financing.
Here is an example:
Excluded from the program are all 2008/2009 Ford Escape/Mercury Mariner Hybrids, the 2008/2009 Shelby GT500 and certain specialty chassis cab and cutaway model truck commercial vehicles.
The Bottom Line
The guys from Dearborn are sweetening the deals on what is normally one of the better times to buy a new car or truck.
