Are Ford Incentives on the F-150 Too High?

On its website, Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) promotes a lease offer for a similar truck of $259 per month for 36 months, after a cash payment of $4,389. Buyers can choose between 0% financing for 72 months or $7,050 in various incentive payments. Back in July, incentive payments were reported to have topped out at around $10,000 on some models.

These are pretty sweet deals and they seem to have arrived on the F-150 very quickly, and the analysts at Citi Research have noticed. Citing data from TrueCar, Kelley Blue Book and Edmunds, the analysts noted that incentives on the F-150 have risen sharply while competitor incentives have been dropping. The level of incentives leads Citi to wonder if demand for the truck is as strong as Ford claims.

Granted that the margins on these trucks is quite handsome and leaves the manufacturer and the dealers with a good amount of wriggle room. Still, given the slow start that Ford experienced with its new aluminum-bodied F-150, it is reasonable to expect that incentives would be a little harder to come by this soon.

In August, Ford reported sales of 71,332 F-Series pickups, the first time the total has risen to more than 70,000 all year. Ford had better beat that number in September, or the company will have to address some serious questions about the F-150. The company does not break out sales by model (F-150, F-250, etc.).

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In Ford’s defense, the company certainly wants to widen its lead as the top pickup seller in the United States and maintain the F-150’s position as the best-selling vehicle in the country. Ford lost ground to both Ram and Chevy/GM as it made the switch to the aluminum-bodied F-150. If the company has to prime the pump now with thousands of dollars in incentives it appears willing to do so. After all, it spent billions on design and retooling to build the new aluminum-bodied truck; now’s not the time to go cheap on investing in them.

Ford stock traded up about 0.6% at noon on Monday, at $14.37 in a 52-week range of $10.44 to $16.74.