Ford wraps up a difficult year on a high note: sales were up 33% in December compared to a year ago. And although year-end totals were down 15.4% from ’08, that still outpaced the market to deliver Ford’s first annual market share increase since 1995. Ford estimates its 2009 market share to come in at 15%, up one percentage point from 2008. Details:
The Fusion was up 83%, capping an all-time sales record for the month (18,852) and for the year (181k). The Escape had a similar run in December (up 75%) and a yearly total of 173k. Ford claims to be the biggest seller of crossovers. Edge was up 59% and Flex up 73%.
The F-Series continued to be America’s sweetheart, although nowhere near what it sold in the good bad old days. The pickups posted a 16% gain in December, and a yearly total of 414k. It also gained 4 percentage points in segment market share.
Taurus continues to sell at about double its predecessor’s rate, and moved 7,256 units in the month. And Mustang put on a good show, up 62% in December.
Here are the monthly/annual changes by brand: Ford +37%/-14%; Lincoln: +16%/-23%; Mercury: +6%/-23%; Volvo: +14%/-16%
Here’s some 2009 totals:
Crown Vic 33,255 -32%
Taurus 45,617 -13%
Fusion 180,671 +22%
Focus 160,433 -18%
Mustang 66,623 -27%
Flex 38,717 +168%
Edge 88,548 -20%
Escape 173,044 +10%
Expedition 31,655 -43%
Explorer 52,190 -34%
F-Series 413,627 -20%
Ranger 55,600 -16%
Econoline 85,735 -32%
Transit Connect 8,834
Lincoln:
MKS 17,171 +32%
MKZ 22,081 -27%
MKX 21,433 -26%
Town car 11,375 -27%
MKT 2,580
Navigator 8,057 -46%
Mercury:
Grand Marquis 24,783 -17%
Milan 27,401 -13%
Mariner 28688 -11%
Mountaineer 5,169 -51%
Volvo:
S40 7,957 -18%
V50 2,155 +16%
S60 5,895 -34%
S80 8,331 -25%
V70 1816 -44%
XC60 8,262
XC70 5,825 -39%
XC90 10,757 -43%
C70 5,170 -7%
C30 4,260 -1%
Mustang: The nicest looking car you’ll ever rice out
Are we gonna have more gratuitous auto-babe shots with our sales numbers this month?
Gives me something to live for each month….
So much for the post-C4C crash many were predicting.
Does every post about these have to include “these are compared against 2009, which sucked so badly that one would certainly hope that there would be a recovery?” Also, note that Ford definitely led the industry with these results. The fact that their market share went up is one clue of such. Not that GM’s 9 percent decline from same month 2009 proves that there was a strong effect, either.
This isn’t enough data to prove that there was or wasn’t a post-C4C effect, or the magnitude or duration of the effect. Denying that there would be at least some post-C4C effect from sales pull-forward is incredibly stupid, as not even the Administration economists reviewing (and praising) the program denied that. The only argument was about the magnitude and duration of the effect.
2010 Ford Taurus sales – 90% gain over 2009 MY, and Taurus SHO is getting a conquest rate (percentage of sales coming from trading in competing brands) over 60%. Go Ford!
Impressive.
Go Ford.
Bunter
Here’s how sales shaped up north of the 49th : http://www.desrosiers.ca/Monthly%20Updates/sales.pdf
Looks like Ford gained some market share +2.5% at the expense of GM: -4.5% and Chrysler: -2.4%
Not to take away from Ford’s achievement, but keep in mind that one of the reasons December sales for all the automakers got a boost was because of the expiring tax deduction on sales taxes.
I suspect next year might be a bit tougher.
All Volvos put together amounted to about 60k for the month. the lame duck Crown Vic, Marquis adn Town Car put together accounted for 68k sales. Heck, the Ranger alone sold within 10% of all of Volvo. If Ford put just a little bit of money into these cash cows, It would be an excellent investment.
When it comes to the product mix, Ford is in an excellent position regarding the Growth/Share matrix (also called the BCG matrix). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth-share_matrix) Most of Fords products are either stars or cash cows, the two most desirable categories. Contrast this to Chrysler. Almost all its products are dogs with low and declining market share. It’s future products will at best be questionmarks (cash consumers).
If the economy picks up this year as expected, Ford is in a VERY nice position. If you add the new Focus and Fiesta, they won’t have any dogs or missing pieces left in their car lineup.
One of the reasons Ford is taking market share from GM and Chrysler is that Ford still has a strong dealer network. The misguided, hasty dealer cull at GM and Chrsyler took selling capacity away from them. Many smaller communities only have Ford dealerships now when once upon a time they had at least a Ford and a Chevy dealer in town.
There is no evidence that the dealer slaughter is in fact improving the selling effectiveness at GM and Chrysler, contrary to the nonsense those companies and their defenders spewed during the whole sorry affair.
But actually there is no evidence that the dealer cuts are hurting GM. Common sense says they should be, but we really have no evidence one way or another.
On the other hand, one factor is the shift in fleet sales: GM is down from 33% in Dec 2008 to 22% last month, while Ford is now at 35% (sorry, couldn’t find Ford’s 2008 number), and this shows in the rental fleet compositions, too, which have far fewer GM these days and a fair number of Fords. GM has cut back on this business as it’s generally unprofitable; the question is whether Ford is doing it just to keep the factories busy, or whether it really has found a way to squeeze blood out of a stone.
Ford put nearly 65K cars into fleets last month. How many of the 7,256 Tauruses are now gracing the lots of Hertz, Budget, Avis and others?
Sigh. I kinda miss RF’s inexplicable “Ford Death Watch” series with its hilarious rantings about the auto media drinking Mulally’s Kool Aid. Sanity can be boring, Paul.
I don’t miss them in the least. They always sounded like the rants of someone with a bug up their backside.
Agreed Len_A, my sober and calmer side doesn’t miss him either. Your comment is spot on. But my drunken and spirited side yearns for a sparring partner.
@th009
A fleet sale does not equal a rental fleet sale. Ford has long dominated the commercial and government space with its pick-ups and vans, and it actually gained some marketshare here as well in 2009. Its rental fleet composition is about 11% right now – comparable to Toyota and lower than Hyundai (which was close to 35% – not sure where they ended the year), Nissan and probably GM.
For the year, Ford likely ended at 68% retail, 11-12% rental and 20-21% govt/commercial. I haven’t listened to their sales call yet, so I’m not sure exactly how things broke out (or if they disclosed it).
Would love to hear the details, especially for December, which had improved sales and a 35% fleet component. Please do post once you have them …