Ford back in U.S. minivan market with European car

Ford Motor Co., returning to the U.S. minivan market after at least a four-year absence, will count on a compact people mover it developed in Europe to drive sales to the children of the American Baby Boom generation.

Ford, debuting the C-Max at next month's Detroit auto show, is hoping to lure young families with fuel economy it says is the best of any minivan and a price starting below $27,220. The United States will add 11 million new households in the next decade, helping boost minivan sales 52 percent by 2012, J.D. Power said.

"New households will lead to new families looking for affordable vehicles that can carry several passengers and cargo," Jeff Schuster, an auto analyst with researcher J.D. Power & Associates in Troy, Mich., said in an interview. "Traditional minivans have some image problems, so Ford is not going to market the C-Max as a minivan."

While the C-Max van is based on Ford's Focus small car, it has sliding rear doors and seven seats typical of minivans. The second-largest U.S. automaker said last year that the C-Max will go on sale domestically in late 2011. The introduction has been delayed until 2012, Schuster said.

The C-Max has the attributes of a traditional minivan, "without looking like a box on wheels," Derrick Kuzak, Ford's product development chief, told reporters Dec. 14 at the plant in Wayne, Mich., where the new Focus will start production Jan. 3. Ford will build 10 models, including the C-Max, on the mechanical foundation of the Focus, Kuzak said.

Ford abandoned the minivan market in 2006, when it ended production of its Freestar model. Ford sold 46,245 Windstar and Freestar minivans that year, while Chrysler LLC sold 211,140 Dodge Caravans and Honda Motor Co. sold 177,919 Odyssey models.

In 2008, Ford went after the people-mover market with the boxy Flex model, which didn't achieve the automaker's sales goals, Schuster said. Ford sold 38,717 Flex models last year.

"The Flex has been polarizing because of its looks - you either love it or hate it," Schuster said. "It's a large, heavy vehicle that you aren't buying for its fuel economy."

The U.S. minivan market peaked at 1.4 million vehicles in 2000 and fell 70 percent to 415,173 last year, according to researcher Autodata Corp. of Woodcliff Lake, N.J.

J.D. Power forecast the U.S. minivan market will grow to 630,857 vehicles in 2012 as the economy recovers and the offspring of the baby-boomer generation begin having families, Schuster said.