Ford Sales Flat In November; Cars Up, Trucks Down
Ford buyers’ shift to cars from trucks continued unabated in November. While the F-Series booked a 20% drop, reflecting a weak construction and discretionary truck market, passenger cars sales increased a tidy 14%. Net: Zero. The big winner at Ford is the Fusion, up 54%, and setting a new full year sales record. The details:
Ford brand vehicles overall were up 2%, driven by stronger passenger car sales and crossovers. As mentioned, the Fusion led the way, especially with a trend-busting 18% increase YTD. The Taurus also booked a 54% increase, with totals for the month at 4,669 units. The Mustang was flat, and the Flex was down 8%, unable to catch any significant momentum despite a renewed marketing effort. Focus booked a reasonable 24% increase, but is still down for the year. The Escape is still strong, up 51%, and ahead for the year.
That’s it for most of the good news, because Mercury and Lincoln are struggling:
Were it not for the Milan’s 40% increase, Mercury would be in the ditch. Less than 7k total unit were moved at the sign of the cat.
The news was even worse at Lincoln: total sales for the month barely broke 6k. The MKS faltered, down 27%. The Town Car is fading away, MKX and navigator are drooping, and the new MKT couldn’t help with 648 units. Total Lincoln sales are down 20% for the month and 26& YTD.
Volvo eked out a 5% gain, thanks to the new XC60 instant best seller status of the brand. Except for the C70, declines were across the board. Volvo is down 18% for the year so far.
Hybrid sales for all Ford brands were up a tidy 73%, reflecting the Fusion’s new membership in the club.
Ford overall remains down 19% YTD. But production plans for the first quarter 2010 are set for 550k units, which would be a 58% increase over the dismal Q1 of 2009.
More by Paul Niedermeyer
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Following is a list of the top-20 selling vehicles, ranked by total units. RANK VEHICLE 2009 2008 '08 RANK % Chng 1 Ford F-Series P/U 365,416 473,933 1 -22.9 2 Toyota Camry 321,878 411,342 3 -21.7 3 Chevy Silverado-C/K P/U 283,243 431,725 2 -34.4 4 Toyota Corolla 262,654 328,878 4 -20.1 5 Honda Accord 261,818 350,441 6 -25.3 6 Honda Civic 237,403 321,987 8 -26.3 7 Nissan Altima 184,925 252,357 9 -26.7 8 Honda CR-V 172,528 183,346 11 -5.9 9 Dodge Ram P/U 165,254 229,222 5 -27.9 10 Ford Fusion 161,819 137,295 20 +17.9 11 Ford Escape 153,888 145,577 17 +5.7 12 Chevrolet Impala 151,952 244,692 7 -37.9 13 Ford Focus 146,228 184,152 15 -20.6 14 Chevrolet Malibu 142,194 160,898 26 -11.6 15 Toyota RAV4 132,346 128,225 18 +3.2 16 Toyota Prius 127,907 151,025 16 -15.3 17 Hyundai Sonata 109,543 110,764 -1.1 18 GMC Sierra P/U 99,698 155,564 12 -35.9 19 Hyundai Elantra 97,506 92,085 27 +5.9 20 Chevrolet Cobalt 96,052 175,259 14 -45.2
Since the F-150 is where the profits lie.....flat sales = lost money and cash flow.....