Introduction

Ford Australia is the subsidiary of Ford Motor Company, founded in Geelong, Victoria, in 1925. This sales forecast will present the expected sales of ford vehicles in 2012 as a result of research and current trends.
Australia’s Auto-mobile Market’s Key Trends
1. Weakening of Car sales

Since the global financial crisis, new vehicle sales within Australia have been severely crippled. In 2008 December, sales were recorded at76,510 dropped from earlier year’s sale of 86,250 . The 11.3% drop is a direct result of unfortunate consumer confidence which Australia’s index of consumer sentiment was recorded at -6 in 2008 January (Trading Economics). Although sales continued to be poor in 2009, sales regain its market strength in 2010 with the aid of increased sales of SVUs and private sales of cars, increasing sales by 11.8% compared with 2009 (Sydney Morning Herald). Despite strong buoyance in 2010, the car market again began to weakened again with the total new car sales slipped by 1.5% where sport car sales dropped by 5.6% (The Age).

2. Movement Towards Small Vehicles

In 2011 the nationwide trend for all car companies has been customers moving from purchasing larger sedans to small and light cars. Small and light vehicles made up 38.9% of total car sales in October, up from 35.1% in 2010 (Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, 2011). This is a trend that will have an impact on our sales forecast for Ford with customer’s preferring the smaller Ford vehicles. It is further highlighted by poor sales figures of the larger falcon which sold 1331 units in May, more than 1900 less than at the same stage the previous year representing a drop of 59.1%. Sales for the year to date are down 40% (Heasley, 2011).

3. Rising Fuel Price

According to the latest data released by the Australian Institute of Petroleum (AIP), the price of petrol is at a