Ford's October Sales Sink 32%
Automotive News [AN sub] reports that The Blue Oval Boyz are getting that sinking feeling. And how. October sales sank 32 percent, “as the industry braced for what may be weakest monthly sales report in 25 years.” AN is, of course, parroting the party line. To wit: “An economic gauntlet, the likes of which haven’t been seen in more than two decades, could not deter Ford’s best-selling F-Series truck,” FoMoCo PR writes. “Ford dealers celebrated Truck Month by delivering 43,324 F-Series in October.” Truck month? Who knew? In Ford’s world, the October sales decline merits a single sentence: “Ford, Lincoln and Mercury sales totaled 129,121 in October, down 29 percent compared with a year ago.” Yes, well, unlike our headline, that’s adjusted for sales days. Anyway, if you think that’s bad– and why wouldn’t you– Volvo sales fell 52.1 percent. Make the jump for some specific examples of bad juju.
The Edge is dead in the water (-57.9 percent). Not that it had far too fall, but sales of the Taurus X (which gets a little descriptor in the stats lest no one but owners and pistonheads knows what the Hell it is) dropped 68.4 percent. Lower gas price reigniting SUV sales my ass; sales of the once all-conquering Explorer fell by 59.2 percent. By genre, everything sucks: cars (-26.8), CUvs (-38.8), SUVs 9-53.9) and trucks (-30.3). How much of this can Ford take? Financial “pad” or no, we’re going to find out. And soon.
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Hi Katie, Good to see you around again - haven't seen your contributions in a while (or maybe I just haven't been looking). But your argument against the Ka doesn't stack up. As you yourself pointed out, your comparison is based on the old Ka, a car which is more or less unchanged since it launched in 1996 - and more importantly, was axed last month in favour of the all-new, Fiat 500-based Ka. I actually agree that bringing the Ka - even the new one - to the US is ridiculous, but on a different premise - it's simply too close to the Fester (sic) to be worth it. Faced with the choice, Americans aren't going to see the point in buying a smaller, less powerful, and more cheaply-finished car for nearly as much. For the same reason, I don't think the Aygo would work in the US - it's just too close to the Yaris to make sense. Americans may be in one of their downsizing phases, but there are limits.
Martin B : I’m not sure if Volvo trucks in Europe are part of Ford. If so, the news is even more depressing, like a better than 99% drop in sales. No, Volvo Truck is not part of Ford. Jacques Nasser only bought the car side of the business. With his peculiar genius for buying turkeys, I'm surprised he didn't overpay for all of Volvo.
P71 . . . you are some kind of bitter dude. Biggest hater on the site. Too bad your opinions tend to not hold water. And it's hypocritical to give Toyota a 'pass' just because they're making money . . . a bad strategy is a bad strategy. I really wonder at the reaction to Ford's 32% drop . . . is everyone choosing to ignore the general industry results? Granted, any drop is bad, and being behind anyone is bad . . . but Toyota is down 26%. And as far as the 2010 intros being suspicious . . . I'll tell you they're not. We've seen the Fusion here, and the hybrid is right behind it with FE that beats similar hybrids. The Transit Connect is here soon and it will really fill some white space . . . I predict a hit. The new Taurus is gorgeous. The Fiesta *will* be here on time, and it's getting great reviews in Europe. Hate all you want . . . Ford is rocking!
@HPE, I only used the old KA stat, simply because I don't have access to the new generation's stats. But my (broader) point is this. People in NA are looking to Euro Fords to help NA Ford and I keep telling everyone (and everyone conveniently doesn't listen) Euro Fords are nowhere near the panacea everyone thinks they are. They still have terrible resale value (like NA cars), they still have pretty poor reliability (like NA cars) and they are still losing market share to other car makers (like NA cars). Also, if I was an NA customer and I saw a Euro Ford and I thought "Wow! This is a quality car!", my next thought, instantly, would be "How come the europeans get cars like these and I get these piles of junk?!". Thus "endearing" myself closer to Ford(!)