There’s nothing for anyone to like in Ford’s just-released February sales numbers (PDF), which show sales of all brands down nearly 50 percent. SUVs led declines by category, dropping a staggering 71 percent compared to February ’08. Drops were relatively even by brand, with all of Ford’s brands declining by between 40 and 55 percent. Fusion and Mustang sales dropped by 49.2 and 61.4 percent respectively, while Edge and Taurus X dragged CUV sales down with 55.2 and 46.1 percent decreases. Both of these categories fared much better than Ford’s SUVs which were down over 70 percent. Lincoln sales dropped 41.2 percent with MKZ, Navigator and Mark LT all falling over 65 percent. Mercury’s Sable showed a 35 percent sales increase, holding that brand’s losses to under 50 percent. Volvo lost over 55 percent of its sales versus last February, with S60 (down 79.2 percent) and V70 (down 66.8 percent) leading the way. Volvo’s new XC60 sold only 235 units. Volvo’s best-selling car is the S80, which sold a grand total of 671 units last month.
When are we gonna get the article talking about Toyota’s financial arm asking for a Japanese goverment subsidized loan?? Jalopnik has it posted, so I’m waiting cause I’m excited to read that one!
Wow!
If/when the Canadian figures for Ford become available can someone please post the link to them here?
The Chrysler guys were on WJR in Detroit this morning bragging that they beat Ford in retail sales for the month.
“When are we gonna get the article talking about Toyota’s financial arm asking for a Japanese goverment subsidized loan?? ”
Toyota asking for a bailout!? That’s unpossible!
bluecon :
March 3rd, 2009 at 12:50 pm
The Chrysler guys were on WJR in Detroit this morning bragging that they beat Ford in retail sales for the month.
This is exact reason why it was wrong to bailout GM/Chrysler. It gives them and unfair advantage in offering discounts/rebates compared to companies trying to do it right.
We need graphs on this site so we can better see the slide over the last few years.
Attn : Ford
Limit truck production. The SUV thing is gone. Bring over the Focus ST. Crank out the Mondeo … uh, I mean the Taurus ASAP.
That and trim a brand or something. Oh yeah and learn some marketing skills. SYNC will not save you – it even sounds like a gimmick.
Take a long, hard look at the Ford Europe website. Young, hip, stylish, cool and friendly.
“Volvo’s best-selling car is the S80.” Good gracious, that can’t be right. Poor Volvo.
The hysterical part is that there are Ford cheerleaders that go around spouting all sorts of drivel that Ford is in the best position of the Big 3…which means absolutely nothing.
‘Tis a shame that the re-skinned products (F-150, Fusion, Taurus) will do nothing to help them.
The hysterical part is that there are Ford cheerleaders that go around spouting all sorts of drivel that Ford is in the best position of the Big 3…which means absolutely nothing.
When a bear market is attacking you, it sure doesn’t hurt.
I pointed a co-worker to the Hyundai Santa Fe or the Taurus X, hope she gets a great deal.
unseensightz :
March 3rd, 2009 at 12:48 pm
When are we gonna get the article talking about Toyota’s financial arm asking for a Japanese goverment subsidized loan?? Jalopnik has it posted, so I’m waiting cause I’m excited to read that one!
That’s a canard. What Toyota is doing is seeking an operating loan. Taking out loans through the standard commercial banks is getting prohibitively expensive, so they’re going national on this one.
There’s a difference between that and “we haz no munney, pleeze gimme zum” which other car makers are resorting to.
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/toyota-financial-unit-asks-to-borrow-public-money-20090303-8n4g.html
I am surprised at the sharp drop-off in Fusion sales. Could this be partly the result of 2009 models slowly phasing out for the early introduction of the 2010s?
Ford’s European cars need to get here now, not 2010 or 2011. Poor Ford Motor dealers are going to get hammered more by buyers because they feed on the bad news as a sign to ask for $3000 or more under invoice.
I hate to say it, but maybe slower sales is good for a company like Ford because they will not be taking as many losses per vehicle. The big three, I mean the big two and a half, have used the incentives so much over the years that people now expect zero percent loans and a grand from the factory. Pile that on top of three thousand below invoice and you kill the big three and the dealers at the same time.
I still wonder where did all the money go they made in the 90s. I know they say labor took most of it, but I think the whole story is they wasted the money and paid to much to labor while struggling to make products that can take on Toyota, Honda, and so on.
Meanwhile, the Crown Vic is down a mere -16% and the Town Car -17%. The cars that wouldn’t die.
Of all the (relatively few) Flexs sold, I’ve seen a total of ONE on the roads. Where are they, hiding in people’s garages?
Fusion, Milan and MKZ are selling down (stock of MKZ is particularly low), so sales were bound to be weak. 2010s start hitting dealer lots in March, fleet movements in March and April, I believe.
The Mustang is just hurting. Ford was supposed to start production of the 2010 last week, but, frankly, they still have way too much 2008 and 2009 inventory.
F-series got smashed and still managed to be the #1 auto again.
Strength in the Taurus, Taurus X, Sable, Crown Vic, Town Car, Focus (some) and Escape was fleet (not necessarily rental fleet – comm/gov as well).
Bright spots:
Flex and Edge – they don’t look like bright spots in gross numbers, but there are two very encouraging points: 1) fleet % (rental and otherwise) is very low and 2) incentive spend on these models is low relative to the industry. Similar arguments can be applied to the MKX and MKS.
The F-series remains something to watch in the incentive spend arena. The 2008s were basically gone at the beginning of the month, so the F-series sales are being driven by the 2009 model which has relatively low incentive spend for the pick-up market. Moral: that’s good money for Ford, even if it isn’t the 50k they sold last year.
RobertSD:
The Flex might just be the best family hauler ever.
That or club cruiser to haul around hotties lol.
Get it together Ford, you can do it.
Meanwhile, the Crown Vic is down a mere -16% and the Town Car -17%. The cars that wouldn’t die.
Not killing off the Panther was one of the best decisions Ford ever made. The profit on them must be insane given that all development costs were paid off a long time ago, and they don’t market them at all!
The Crown Vic outsells the Expedition by more than 2 to 1. At the current rate of sales the Expedition sell only 20,000 in 09.
Volvo’s new XC60 sold only 235 units.
Is it already on sale here? I follow Volvo on Twitter and there’s a 30 day countdown to the product launch.
@OldandSlow:
The Expedition hasn’t been produced since November. The inventory is down to a few thousand units – and mostly leftover 2008 models. Everything’s been picked over. Because of that, fleet sales are 0% and incentive spend is reasonable for its class. I’d say it’s not doing too badly considering those data points. Production begins at the end of this month at which point the Expedition will start climbing in sales again, but I have March sales coming in even lower than this.
Autoblog posted the losses for ALL the manufacturers.
The Big 3 took the brunt but EVERYONE IS HURTING.
ITS A CREDIT CRISIS THING…WORLDWIDE…NOT AMERICAN AUTOMAKERS ALONE.
@flashpoint
Worldwide? Maybe US and Western Europe, but not worldwide. Brazil is off just 2% in Feb and India and China seem to be getting back on track.
IN US though I hope Ford stays the course, low or no fleet sales, few incentives, and new and improved cars coming (traditional US Fords in 2009, I like the Fusion the Taurus the Flex and Euro ones hopefully in 2010). They do need to have a better small and compact car cthough.
F-series down 55% and SUVs down 70%. Horray!
Maybe they are finally dying off, or maybe it says people are cautious about fuel costs climbing again if they HAVE to buy a vehicle.
Volvo is just…well…sad.
@FromBrazil
Brazil is one of the few countries that has avoided a recession, your economy is still growing. That’s why sales aren’t off there.
China and India are in danger of recession but aren’t there yet.
Meanwhile, the Crown Vic is down a mere -16% and the Town Car -17%. The cars that wouldn’t die.
Fleet sales. Police departments need to replace cruisers and car services need to replace Town Cars.