Ford June Sales Plummet 28%
There's no way to sugarcoat it: Ford's June sales sucked. Ford dealers moved 28 percent less metal– 167K vehicles– than last June. Compared with the first half of 2007, FoMoCo's sales fell a full 14 percent. In all fairness, the numbers are the first which don't include Jaguar and Land Rover (sold off to Tata motors). But based on recent months' sales, the two brands would have only added about another 4k sales. So it still sucks. Retail sales for cars were up three percent; cars and crossovers made up 59 percent of retail sales for the first half of the year. Fleet sales were down 11 percent for June. Ford mouthpiece Jim Farley explained "the rapid rise in gasoline prices, and the resulting shift toward fuel efficient vehicles, has been challenging." But fear not! "In addition to adjusting our capacity and production plans to produce more cars and crossovers, we are introducing several new vehicles with class-leading fuel economy." Hope springs eternal, but will it be this spring?
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Meanwhile I just saw a story on another website where Toyota, the 2.8 & others in some sort manufacturer's association is bitching to the government how the newly implemented fuel efficiency standards are too burdensome for the. WAAAA! you Feds just colluded with us to beat back California's even more demanding standards. Now we are gonna complain some more! Got news for you manufacturers, looks like the "free market" just moved the bar on you pretty much overnight, far faster than the government ever would. Not so long ago I heard Auto journalists dissing Honda for the Ridgeline being too small, and now even its sales have dumped for Honda. I guess now its too big!
Pickup sales are being hit with a double whammy-gas prices are insanely high and housing starts are insanely low. Pickup sales have always been tied very closely to housing starts. So, ttacgreg, the Ridgeline was down merely because it's a pickup. The Ranger was down 33.8%, even though it's the smallest pickup for sale in the US.
Those new CAFE standards are a consummate disgrace. They will be the final nail in the car industry's coffin. I hope that entire CAFE legislation is gutted and eviscerated like a grizzly chowing down on a salmon. Give the industry 10 years to hit 30mpg or so. 35mpg is absolutely unreasonable. We don't need CAFE to get more fuel efficient cars. The market, as usual, took care of it.