Ford March Sales Up 43 Percent
March is shaping up to be the biggest month in car sales since Cash for Clunkers ended, and Ford isn’t being left behind [ official release in PDF format here]. The firm’s sales rose 43 percent last month, matching February’s performance and setting another record for sales since 1984. Ford brand sales led the way with a 45.6 percent increase, while Lincoln climbed 18.9 percent and Mercury rose 26.2 percent. Focus hit 19,500 units, a 57.5 percent increase, while Fusion sales grew 79 percent to 22,773 units, an all-time record for the nameplate. Escape flirted with the 20k mark as well at 19,182, while F-Series hit 42,514, a 30 percent increase. Explorer even saw a 78 percent bump to 5,907, and a 53 percent bump in fleet sales sent over 10,000 Econolines out the door. Lincoln sold 450 more MKZs than it did last March, otherwise only the Town Car and Navigator were up (modestly). Milan carried the Mercury brand, up 71 percent to 3,897 units. Grand Marquis and Mariner sold 3,532 and 2,482 respectively. Though Ford had a great month sales-wise, its luxury brand situation continues to be one hot, steaming mess.
More by Edward Niedermeyer
Comments
Join the conversation
Wow...Ford fleet sales up 53%? Ouch. And yet another month of Lincoln/Mercury proving they're dead weight. Flex sales were better than abysmal, and the "chrome-n-badge" Taurus (MKS) broke it's almost year long record of negative monthly sales (2010 vs 2009)...but you can still see that the 'bland and bloated' Taurus is eating up MKTaurus sales with a vengeance... And yet another month where the Camaro outsold the Mustang.
One thing that hasn't been pointed out... the Crown Vic is currently outselling the Flex this year... Now which one will Ford be making the most money on per car? And which one are Ford going to stop making? WHERE'S THE LOGIC?!
Ok, can someone explain to me why Ford in 2010 still feels the need to do massive fleet sales and $3,000+ incentives? Hasn't their Fusion, Focus, and 300HP/30MPG Mustang lineup been good enough for cleaning up their image? Color me crazy all you want, but even this former American auto critic has been won over by Ford! So after winning a lot of PR points from rejecting federal bailout and improving their product line, why haven't they gone down Honda's old rote and kept resale values high?
Out of the Detroit 3, Ford is the only one I have faith will make it as a successful independent automaker in the future.