Ford Sales Up 14.3 Percent in February
3/1/12, 02:22 PM
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Ford Sales Up 14.3 Percent in February
Ford and Lincoln both enjoyed double-digit sales increases last month, as Ford Motor Company delivered 179,119 cars, sportutilityvehicles, and trucks in February, a 14.4 percent gain over the same time period last year.
Ford: 172,207 Sales, Up 14.3 Percent
Sales of Ford cars and trucks jumped 14.3 percent in February, thanks to a couple of models. The first is the Focus, which sold 23,350 units last month. That’s a 114.6 percent increase over February 2011, the best performance for the Focus since its first generation, back in 2000. It’s also enough to pass the Fusion mid-size sedan for last month’s second-best seller, behind the F-Series. Another winner? The Escape SUV, which saw a 3.7-percent increase to 18,666 units, making February 2012 its best month ever. That’s impressive, considering an all-new model is just around the corner. The Mustang also pulled out a win with a 98.8 percent year-over-year increase, selling 7351 units.
As usual, the F-Series pickup was the brand’s top seller: the truck range jumped 25.9 percent in February, with 47,273 units sold. Ford claims that 43 percent of those trucks — all F-150s — featured Ford’s 3.5-liter, twin-turbocharged, 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6 engine. Last month, 57 percent of all F-150s were sold with either the EcoBoost V-6 or the base 3.7-liter V-6.
Elsewhere, nearly all of Ford’s other utilities and trucks were up: Edge sales grew almost four percent to 10,535 units; the Explorer rose 8.1 percent to 10,440 units; and even the big Expedition, which accounted for 3050 sales in February 2012, saw a 7.8-percent boost. E-Series vans saw volumes rise 3.9 percent to 10,100 vehicles, while sales of the smaller Transit Connect grew 7.1 percent to 2305 units. The Flex appears to be the only Ford SUV/crossover that bucks that trend: sales dropped 14.5 percent to 2012 deliveries, but that may be attributed to a refreshed model slated to launch later this year.
Ford’s cars also posted declines in February 2012. The small Fiesta slid 12 percent to 5518 units sold, while the mid-size Fusion slipped to 21,773 sales, down 5.8 percent. The Taurus was down 23 percent to 4329 sales as well, although the Fusion and Taurus lines will both be updated in the very near future.
Ford’s discontinued models saw mixed results: although the Crown Victoria sold just 548 units last month, down 87.9 percent from last year, the Ford Ranger was up 18.9 percent, with a total of 4482 deliveries.
Lincoln: Up 16.2 Percent to 6912 Sales
Lincoln may be struggling to find its brand identity, but it didn’t struggle in terms of sales last month. Volume for the brand totaled only 6912 units, but that does represent a 16.2-percent jump over February 2011.
All of Lincoln’s five model lines saw sales increase last month. The MKZ midsize sedan was up 40.1 percent to 2487 sales. Interestingly, the larger MKS only accounted for 857 deliveries last month, but that still represents a 50.9-percent increase from the same period in 2011. The MKX crossover was up 32.5 percent to 2168 units, while sales of the aging Navigator spiked 34.2 percent, climbing to 824 sales. The MKT large crossover edged up 2.2 percent to 421 sales, the smallest increase of the brand, but Lincoln promises that the MKT’s future will be brighter once the livery-spec MKT model goes on sale next month.
Interestingly, the model it replaces, the deceased Town Car, still accounted for a handful of deliveries last month. 155 models were sold last month. That’s an 83.6-percent drop from the year prior, but unsurprising considering production ended in late August.
Source: Ford Motor Company
Ford: 172,207 Sales, Up 14.3 Percent
Sales of Ford cars and trucks jumped 14.3 percent in February, thanks to a couple of models. The first is the Focus, which sold 23,350 units last month. That’s a 114.6 percent increase over February 2011, the best performance for the Focus since its first generation, back in 2000. It’s also enough to pass the Fusion mid-size sedan for last month’s second-best seller, behind the F-Series. Another winner? The Escape SUV, which saw a 3.7-percent increase to 18,666 units, making February 2012 its best month ever. That’s impressive, considering an all-new model is just around the corner. The Mustang also pulled out a win with a 98.8 percent year-over-year increase, selling 7351 units.
As usual, the F-Series pickup was the brand’s top seller: the truck range jumped 25.9 percent in February, with 47,273 units sold. Ford claims that 43 percent of those trucks — all F-150s — featured Ford’s 3.5-liter, twin-turbocharged, 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6 engine. Last month, 57 percent of all F-150s were sold with either the EcoBoost V-6 or the base 3.7-liter V-6.
Elsewhere, nearly all of Ford’s other utilities and trucks were up: Edge sales grew almost four percent to 10,535 units; the Explorer rose 8.1 percent to 10,440 units; and even the big Expedition, which accounted for 3050 sales in February 2012, saw a 7.8-percent boost. E-Series vans saw volumes rise 3.9 percent to 10,100 vehicles, while sales of the smaller Transit Connect grew 7.1 percent to 2305 units. The Flex appears to be the only Ford SUV/crossover that bucks that trend: sales dropped 14.5 percent to 2012 deliveries, but that may be attributed to a refreshed model slated to launch later this year.
Ford’s cars also posted declines in February 2012. The small Fiesta slid 12 percent to 5518 units sold, while the mid-size Fusion slipped to 21,773 sales, down 5.8 percent. The Taurus was down 23 percent to 4329 sales as well, although the Fusion and Taurus lines will both be updated in the very near future.
Ford’s discontinued models saw mixed results: although the Crown Victoria sold just 548 units last month, down 87.9 percent from last year, the Ford Ranger was up 18.9 percent, with a total of 4482 deliveries.
Lincoln: Up 16.2 Percent to 6912 Sales
Lincoln may be struggling to find its brand identity, but it didn’t struggle in terms of sales last month. Volume for the brand totaled only 6912 units, but that does represent a 16.2-percent jump over February 2011.
All of Lincoln’s five model lines saw sales increase last month. The MKZ midsize sedan was up 40.1 percent to 2487 sales. Interestingly, the larger MKS only accounted for 857 deliveries last month, but that still represents a 50.9-percent increase from the same period in 2011. The MKX crossover was up 32.5 percent to 2168 units, while sales of the aging Navigator spiked 34.2 percent, climbing to 824 sales. The MKT large crossover edged up 2.2 percent to 421 sales, the smallest increase of the brand, but Lincoln promises that the MKT’s future will be brighter once the livery-spec MKT model goes on sale next month.
Interestingly, the model it replaces, the deceased Town Car, still accounted for a handful of deliveries last month. 155 models were sold last month. That’s an 83.6-percent drop from the year prior, but unsurprising considering production ended in late August.
Source: Ford Motor Company
3/1/12, 09:56 PM
#4
Actually, on a happy note, the numbers make it a near certainty that Focus fleet sales are down as a percentage of total sales, and even better it seems likely that those numbers are down as a raw number. Retail sales were up 19% across the lineup which means that the majority of the 14% overall sales increase were from the retail side. Since Focus was such a significant percentage of the overall sales increase which means that, more than likely, most of the gains came from the retail side.
Of course that doesn't have to be the case, but the odds seems to be leaning that way
Of course that doesn't have to be the case, but the odds seems to be leaning that way
Last edited by jsaylor; 3/1/12 at 10:17 PM.
3/1/12, 10:58 PM
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Focus is a GOOD car, for what it is... One of my brothers got one for his wife and she's happy as can be. The ODD part is, he took her OUT of... a Grand Marquis! There's no comparison here, boys and girls... She just likes the little car and the fact is handles like a monorail...
In other news, GM and Chrysler were also up. Chrysler apparently jumped a bigger percentage than Ford, but then... it had plenty of room. The GM brand only crept up 1.1%, but up is up and that's great news for all 3.
In other news, GM and Chrysler were also up. Chrysler apparently jumped a bigger percentage than Ford, but then... it had plenty of room. The GM brand only crept up 1.1%, but up is up and that's great news for all 3.
3/1/12, 11:33 PM
#6
GM is up which is good, but they have lost market share in both January and now February which isn't. GM hasn't been quite as aggressive on incentives as have some other manufacturers, and their full size pickups have been taking something of a beating of late, both of which are reasons a lot of folks are pointing to for that loss in market share. That said, it should be noted that retail sales at GM were actually down in January, without the fleet sales increase GM would have fallen short of last years number.
That said, I think the elephant in the room at GM is profitability, specifically GM seems to be having profitability issues as viewed per unit sold when compared to other leading manufacturers. As such I wonder if the reluctance to enact incentives, something which would typically be viewed as a positive, is actually an effort on the part of GM to not make a bad profitability situation worse.
As for Chrysler, to be blunt they almost had nowhere else to go, but to be fair Fiat really does seem to have a much better handle on the marketing side of the equation than did previous owners. Well, except for the weird drive toward making Ram and SRT into their own distinct brands. Those moves aside I like a lot of what Fiat has done with Mother Mopar.
That said, I think the elephant in the room at GM is profitability, specifically GM seems to be having profitability issues as viewed per unit sold when compared to other leading manufacturers. As such I wonder if the reluctance to enact incentives, something which would typically be viewed as a positive, is actually an effort on the part of GM to not make a bad profitability situation worse.
As for Chrysler, to be blunt they almost had nowhere else to go, but to be fair Fiat really does seem to have a much better handle on the marketing side of the equation than did previous owners. Well, except for the weird drive toward making Ram and SRT into their own distinct brands. Those moves aside I like a lot of what Fiat has done with Mother Mopar.
Last edited by jsaylor; 3/2/12 at 12:22 AM.
3/2/12, 01:06 AM
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Although I suppose MB was just as bad if not worse. After raping Chrysler they managed to own the term cluster **** when it came to the management of MOPAR.
Last edited by bob; 3/2/12 at 01:09 AM.
3/2/12, 03:53 AM
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GM NA's product programs still seem in a bad place. Chevy
s two recent successes, Spark and Cruze, are Daewoos designed by the Korean unit. Their "exciting" Buicks are Opels. They've had some success with making Caddy a hot name, though I'd argue their momentum is leaving them, but the amount of money NA is spending on making sexy Caddies, Vettes, and Camaros doesn't seem to be translating into big sales for everything else in the showroom.
I'm reminded of when, in like 2005 or 6, when Angus and other car rag blowhards were saying that Ford was a truck company that happened to sell cars. GM is starting to look like they want to be a hotrod company that also makes other things.
s two recent successes, Spark and Cruze, are Daewoos designed by the Korean unit. Their "exciting" Buicks are Opels. They've had some success with making Caddy a hot name, though I'd argue their momentum is leaving them, but the amount of money NA is spending on making sexy Caddies, Vettes, and Camaros doesn't seem to be translating into big sales for everything else in the showroom.
I'm reminded of when, in like 2005 or 6, when Angus and other car rag blowhards were saying that Ford was a truck company that happened to sell cars. GM is starting to look like they want to be a hotrod company that also makes other things.
Last edited by Moosetang; 3/2/12 at 03:54 AM.
3/2/12, 11:44 AM
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Its pretty much the same story at Ford. Focus was developed in Europe and starting next year so will be Fusion, Escape and Econoline.
As for Buick, Regal is the only Buick that was developed in Europe and it's not that high of a seller. LaCrosse is much better seller.
3/2/12, 11:47 AM
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Actually Fusion/Mondeo and Transit were Deaborn led projects, the latter of those two being particularly interesting since Transit was originally not intended for US consumption.
3/2/12, 12:18 PM
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Talk about "3 up, 3 down, and inning (game) over"! To think the Board approved 3 losers in a row is insane. 
GM is up which is good, but they have lost market share in both January and now February which isn't. GM hasn't been quite as aggressive on incentives as have some other manufacturers, and their full size pickups have been taking something of a beating of late, both of which are reasons a lot of folks are pointing to for that loss in market share. That said, it should be noted that retail sales at GM were actually down in January, without the fleet sales increase GM would have fallen short of last years number.
That said, I think the elephant in the room at GM is profitability, specifically GM seems to be having profitability issues as viewed per unit sold when compared to other leading manufacturers. As such I wonder if the reluctance to enact incentives, something which would typically be viewed as a positive, is actually an effort on the part of GM to not make a bad profitability situation worse.
As for Chrysler, to be blunt they almost had nowhere else to go, but to be fair Fiat really does seem to have a much better handle on the marketing side of the equation than did previous owners. Well, except for the weird drive toward making Ram and SRT into their own distinct brands. Those moves aside I like a lot of what Fiat has done with Mother Mopar.
That said, I think the elephant in the room at GM is profitability, specifically GM seems to be having profitability issues as viewed per unit sold when compared to other leading manufacturers. As such I wonder if the reluctance to enact incentives, something which would typically be viewed as a positive, is actually an effort on the part of GM to not make a bad profitability situation worse.
As for Chrysler, to be blunt they almost had nowhere else to go, but to be fair Fiat really does seem to have a much better handle on the marketing side of the equation than did previous owners. Well, except for the weird drive toward making Ram and SRT into their own distinct brands. Those moves aside I like a lot of what Fiat has done with Mother Mopar.
Chrysler was more of the 'managed bankruptcy' with the support of loans and a partnering with the private sector (Fiat) vs the outright takeover and ownership of shares of GM by government.
So I find it interesting that Chrysler's sales are spiking as a nimble, well managed company that emerged from banko with very little debt.
Whereas GM is flatlining like a bureaucratic slug (think USSR style) - even though its debt was wiped clean also.
Any time you have government in your bed, there will be performance issues.
Last edited by cdynaco; 3/2/12 at 12:20 PM.
3/3/12, 11:14 PM
#14
Are you trying to say that, if you are in a relationship with the government, the government is always going to do the pitching? 
As for GM, I am actually at the point now where I think GM is going to start looking for actual partners for a merger going forward, sadly I don't expect this story to end well.
As for GM, I am actually at the point now where I think GM is going to start looking for actual partners for a merger going forward, sadly I don't expect this story to end well.
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