Ford Motor Co. will experiment with a single price and pre-determined options for its four models of 1992 Escorts to reduce assembly costs and enhance the car's profitability.
The Escorts will be available only with the company-determined options, including air conditioning, power steering and AM-FM radios.Final prices haven't been set, but Ford General Manager Ross Roberts said the company is suggesting that dealers sell the 1992 Escort wagon, hatchback and LX and LX-E sedans with a specific list of options for $9,999 with a manual transmission and $10,499 with an automatic.
The cars will be offered to about 2,400 Ford dealers in the Southeast, New England and on the West Coast.
Ford would cut cut costs by offering only cars with pre-determined options because it's cheaper and easier to build many of the same type of vehicle, said Ford, which is in the midst of a $3 billion cost-cutting program.
"If we can make every car the same, that would be great," Roberts said.
He said the one-price policy would also take some of the clutter out of buying a car.
"The only decision the customer needs to make is the body style, the color and the transmission," he said. "In other words, we're simplifying the buying process."
But the program could get complex.
For one, dealers don't have to participate. Also, dealers could set any price they want on the four vehicles, as long as the price is the same.
Meanwhile, consumers will be faced with yet another option package among an already bewildering array of special deals, incentives and enticements being offered to get them into showrooms.
"The customer is confused," said Ron Frieberg, owner of Salinas Valley Ford in Salinas, Calif.
But Thomas O'Grady, president of Integrated Automotive Resources Inc. in Wayne, Pa., said the program could be a boon to the company, which lost $1.2 billion in the first half of this year.
"If that (simplification) message really gets across, it could be a good deal," he said.