Ford’s sold 129,898 vehicles last month (PDF) as overall sales declined by 31 percent compared to last April. Retail market share did increase, however, as Ford likely gouged its bailout-burdened Detroit colleagues. The big news though? Mercury outsold Lincoln! Which is more an indicator of Lincoln’s sorry situation (5,973 total sales) than Mercury’s success (7,662). But then even Volvo (4,503) makes Lincoln look good.
By vehicle class, SUVs were the big losers. Utes dropped 60.9 percent of sales with the Navigator (-78.4 percent) and Expedition (-72 percent) falling the fastest. CUVs fared best month-on-month, with only a 15 percent decline in sales. Flex had its best sales month ever (3,190 units) and Edge merely edged down (-26 percent) although its Mercury twin MKX was down over 42 percent (1,748 units). The newly redesigned Fusion saw a 21 percent sales increase over last April’s outgoing model, an achievement trumpeted by Ford PR. But another new product, the F150 pickup, dropped 35 percent. That’s over 16k fewer F150 sales than April 2008, or very nearly the same monthly volume as all of Ford’s non-Ford brands put together.
The most amazing thing? Ford outsold Toyota this month. 129,898 to 126,540 (and that doesn’t include Volvo). First time since March of 2008. I honestly didn’t think I’d ever see that again.
The 129k figure is just FLM – not Volvo. FWIW, it looks like FLM alone may have outsold Toyota-Scion-Lexus this month.
Interestingly, Ford’s inventory is now down below 80 days, which would make it better than all except maybe Honda.
EDIT: Ha! Must have been typing at the same time… Granted, the Fusion has some fleet movement due to the launch of the new model as did the Mustang, but we’re not talking massive numbers here. Fleet in other areas of Ford’s business (both gov/comm and rental), however, seems way down. Overall, though, it sounds like Ford’s conquest rates are strong – they’re seeing 36% conquest of just foreign makes on the 2010 Fusion and 40% with the hybrid.
Hand to Ford on the Fusion. After not at all being impressed with the super sized current model Camry or Accord or even the 6 or Sonata, the Fusion is something I’m strongly considering. That’s something I honestly didn’t think I’d ever say again.
As a Flex owner, I’m glad to see more people giving it a try.
Yeah, the Fusion is still good because it’s based on the old gen 6 platform.
The Altima, thought it has a chunky look, is also not terribly super-sized. The current gen is actually smaller than the previous gen.
For whatever rearson headlines like this bug me when they’re comparing a month this year vs one last year. Just reading the headline, I would see it as saying sales were down 31 percent in April vs March of this year, which would be incredibly worrying. But I guess that’s the point of news headlines?
Yeah, the Fusion is still good because it’s based on the old gen 6 platform.
Sort of. It’s a much-stretched version of that platform, which is still pretty close to what underpins the current 6, Edge and Mazda CXs. It is not appreciably smaller than the Accord, and is, I think, somewhat larger than the Camry.
All of these cars are huge and fairly benign. Quibbling over the blandness is like debating the virtues of the various brands of vanilla ice-cream in your grocer’s freezer.
Still, good for Ford. I would like to see the numbers, but I’d suspect that Ford wasn’t carried by the Fusion or Flex, but by it’s commodity vehicles (F-Series, E-Series, Focus, Panthers). It’s also unsurprising to see Lincoln not selling: they’re basically an American Acura (see Acura’s sales for reference) without the resale value or youth appeal.
I took a lot of flack for my last Ford Taurus editorial, claiming that it (and the D3 platform) was a failure. People pointed to the Lincoln MKS as proof. This year the MKS has sold up to 1000 more units a month than the mostly-fleet Town Car. Wow, I stand corrected. That platform was a great use of Ford’s money, its selling so much better than old school Fords and is worth every penny.
I found something else interesting on Ford’s media site: their Kentucky truck plant can now make the Navi and Expedition SUVs too. Looks like flexible manufacturing might let Ford’s SUVs live to see another day.
Good for Ford. Coming from a family that once owned purely Fords and then shifted over to Toyota after a brand new Lynx caught fire in the Sierra Nevadas, I’m glad to see them getting their act together. I was at an auto show in Albuquerque (I know, shame on me) and was deeply impressed by both the Fusion and the Flex, and the new F150 is pretty nice too. The Ford booth got a ton of attention at the show.
If there really is a class of “I Hate Detroit” people, Ford has by far the best chance of winning those people back, and it looks like some of that reclaiming of customers has already begun.
I contributed to their sales myself buying an 09 Flex. So far, we really like it.
I really hope people give Ford a second look because they are making some great strides and finally delivering a solid product.
Ford must be doing pretty good. Since I’ll need a new vehicle for my business, and vehicles over the 6000 pound gvwr qualify for additional tax credits, I contacted a half dozen Ford stores in my area to ask them the gvwr of the Flex.
This info is not available at the Ford website. Each store promised they would look it up and get back to me. Not one call-back.
Hopefully these help . . .
V6 FWD Flex – 5970lb GVWR
V6 AWD Flex – 6150lb GVWR
GTDi V6 AWD Flex – 6250 GVWR
Relatively speaking, they are doing good. They haven’t filed Chapter 11, they haven’t accepted a bailout, they reduced their debt by nearly $10B, and Moody’s and S&P raised the company’s debt rating (which the company hasn’t had happen in at least three years).
Obviously they’re not out of the woods yet, but I’m quite confident in saying that the light at the end of the tunnel is not a freight train.
Really great news about the Fusion – if it sells at this rate (18k/month) for the whole year it could top 200k, which I don’t think the it’s done yet. I saw a 2010 Fusion the other day, in fact, and it actually looked great – unibrow chrome grille and all.
BTW the Fusion, one could technically argue, is based on the current 6’s platform as well, since the current 6 sits on an evolution of the previous car’s chassis (no Mondeo bits).
As for the 30% drop, the only surprising thing is that GM dropped less (or Toyota more).
@SV: I get the impression that the ’10 Fusion and the ’09 Mazda6 were developed in parallel. Both the Fusion and 6 have re-engineered front suspensions to decrease the CD3’s notoriously large >40ft turning circles. AFAIK the Fusion lopped 1 foot, the 6 an additional 2 feet.
But what do I know, I’m not an auto engineer or Ford/Mazda insider. Someone here is probably in the know.
I’m starting to see more and more Flex’s on the road here, when before I saw next to none.
And the MKX isn’t a Mercury. It’s a Lincoln.
Flex sales are certainly up, we have a lot of customers coming in from things they have heard from friends/neighbors who have purchased one. The more people who buy them, the more word of mouth, the more people will realize that even though it is a bit boxy, it drives like a dream, and the more will sell.
The 2010 Fusion isn’t any larger than the outgoing model (well, maybe a fraction of an inch here or there), the wheelbase and interior room are identical. It looks larger in person just due to the new styling, and the new interior gives a better sense of space.
We are selling a good number of F150s through the retail channel, but fleet/commercial sales on trucks are way down because construction is way down. Chevy, Dodge, and Toyota are also all offering bigger incentives on their pickups, and while we are able get many customers to see the light that the F150 is a superior product, image buyers and price buyers are willing to sacrifice quality for payment during these times.
Fusion sales nearly equaled Corolla in April. A big improvement. Good news for Ford.
Of course F150 sales crushed Tundra. Go Ford!
The Fusion is built on a stretched platform that originally debuted with the Mazda6 in 2002. Ford did significant work on it before launching it in 2005. It is longer, wider, and has better crash performance. The current Fusion is built on the previous Fusion’s platform. There have been no significant changes to the basic arch from 2009 to 2010 – it is all cosmetic or internals. So, they made the car feel different/better for 2010 by investing in suspension, steering, NVH reducing elements, powertrain, materials and design; all things that can change around a platform architecture.
The Mazda6 as it debuted in the U.S. for the 2009MY is based on Mazda’s stretch of that same CD3 for the CX-9. CX-9 and 6 exceed their counterparts’ (Edge and Fusion) wheelbase by about 2 inches and length by 14 and 4 inches, respectively, I believe.
The next-gen Fusion (2013MY launching in early 2012) will be on the CD4 platform, which will look more like CD3 in terms of dimensions and weight than EUCD – although it is in fact a new platform. The Edge will follow suit. Mazda had initially joined this program as well, but it isn’t clear if they will stay on the program (I suspect they will since it will save them some money).