Blackwell Ford Leads Nation in ZX2 Sales

After selling 20 Ford Escort ZX2s in December and finding itself ranked No. 3 nationally, Ron Blackwell Ford of Bentonville set out to be No. 1 in sales of the two-door sportscar in May.

Blackwell ordered 51 ZX2s and took another $1,500 off the price on top of a $2,000 rebate from Ford Motor Co. to get the basic model down to about $10,000.

“We thought that was a piece of the market that the other Ford dealers were missing,” said Jim Allen, general manager of the dealership.

Allen gives Tracy Langston, Blackwell’s new car manager, credit for coming up with the idea. He said Maloney Associates Inc. of Cave Springs handled the promotions.

The plan worked. Blackwell sold 40 ZX2s in May and ranked No. 1 in the nation among Ford dealers for sales of that particular vehicle.

The ZX2 sales also boosted Blackwell’s overall car sales to 63, making it No. 1 in Ford’s Memphis region in car sales for May.

The region includes dealerships in Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, east Mississippi and southeast Missouri.

The company brought in $400,000- $600,000 in sales of the ZX2s in May, based on individual car prices between $10,000 and $15,000 for the decked-out model.

With the promotion over, Blackwell sold 28 cars, including 11 ZX2s, in June to rank No. 3 in the region in overall car sales.

“We ran out of cars,” Allen said of the ZX2s. “We bought 51 of these for the promotion … We sold all we had.”

The company has gotten 10 more ZX2s in stock since then, and a similar promotion may be under way soon for another model.