Here’s a question for you automotive sales historians: when was the last time (month) Ford outsold GM? Four hundred and seventy one cars was the difference, but the bragging rights would have been worth it if Ford had given them away. Here are the highlights: Sales were up a Toyota tidy 22% from January. Camry-fighter Fusion experienced unintended sales acceleration, rocketing ahead at an unrestrained 116 mph percent.Ford brand vehicles were up 46%; Mercury +24%; Lincoln +19%. Company wide, passenger cars were up 54%, utilities +39%, trucks +36%. Retail sales were up 28%, as fleet sales came back to “normal” after a near stand-still a year ago. Ford estimates its February market share at 17%, up a hefty 3 points from a year ago. Detailed charts follow:
I don’t recall the month, but Ford outsold Chevy in 1957. As for Ford vs. all of GM, pretty sure you’re going to have to go back to the 1920s.
I was SO CLOSE to buying Ford Stock when it was at 2 bucks a share, I keep kicking myself…
+1. Me, too. Even a Ford hater has to admire the rebound of F.
I can go and kick you for free (if you pay for the ticket) since I wanted to purchase their stock at 1$.
We are currency controlled in this country… and I already spent all my $$$ :(
ME too, I even told one of the guys at work when ford stock was hovering around $2 to buy it. Of course, I didn’t follow my own advice and neither did he. It seemed obvious with the state of affairs at GM at the time,e ven though the mainstream media was still in denial, that Ford was going to get a boost from a GM bankruptcy. I will say that I didn’t expect the stock to crack $12 within a year.
Lincoln and Mercury sales remain shockingly low.
Surprising that they’re selling so many Mustangs with the much-improved 2011 around the corner.
not so many that they couldn’t avoid axing heads at AAM (although I always wondered if this was due more to a slow selling Mazda6.)
They’ve benefited from GM and Chrysler’s bailout, now they’re benefiting from Toyota’s troubles. And it helps they have a strong lineup.
Ford has been *very* lucky in the last four years, if nothing else.
EDIT: If I had to guess, the last time Ford outsold GM would have been sometime in the late ’90s during the height of the SUV boom, a soaring economy, and 90 cent a gallon gas.
According to the NYT’s Micki Maynard [via Twitter], the last time Ford outsold GM in a single month was during the 1998 Flint strike. Also, prior to the Great Depression.
I wonder if Ford outselling GM will happen more often than not, especially as the Fiesta and new Focus are rolled out.
Personally, I attribute this entirely to the nine driving simulators my company has sold to them in the past year. :)
One month does not a trend make, although it could be considered as anecdotal confirmation of the success of Ford’s market turnaround and gathering momentum vs. its rivals. Even with a fairly strong product portfolio, GM is still playing serious catch-up (Chrysler’s so far behind it begs the question “why bother?”). But GM has a significant financial / balance sheet advantage over Ford (thanks to the taxpayer bailout) in its ability to fund multiple new product development efforts across its remaining brands, and do so relatively quickly.
Questions for Ford are: What’s the fleet sales mix behind these overall sales numbers? And when will Ford’s auto operations become profitable? Ford profits last year were largely finance company-driven.
For Ford, though, if the Fiesta, Focus, C-Max and other models coming down the pike are half as good as the auto blogosphere extols them to be, this may indeed point to a longer-term positive sales trend for Ford over its rivals.
Gee, I wonder who bought the Taurus X? One for the entire year so far?
Whoever bought it probably got a hell of a deal. It’s a Flex without the style, and the Flex is a very good CUV.
They got a hell of a deal because the car is already a year old. They were discontinued at the end of 2008.
Just reported. Toyota down 9%. Camry off 20%, Corolla down 6, I think. Prius UP 10%.
One month doesn’t make a trend but it looks like that the Taurus is eating away at MKS sales.
Yes, there are a lot of crazy comments internet comments about everything but when it comes to cars I think that the anonymous masses are generally spot on.
Good news on the beating GM thing.
Otherwise, we are now well in the midst of the silly season where companies will get to report “huge” year-over-year gains compared to the bottom of the abyss in 2009.
Ford outsold GM? A certain poster’s head just might explode upon reading that news.
P….Z…71….KA-BOOOOOM
hehe
Not surprising. People still need mediocre, basic transportation…and when they are afraid (for no logical reason) to buy Toyota…they buy Ford..
And if you actually look at the numbers rather than reading Ford’s spun headlines and talking points, the picture is not so great.
P71-Z71,
Shouldn’t you be straightening out all the GM bashers at the “GM To Recall 1.3 Million Cobalt/G5s” and “GM Core Brand Sales Up 32 Percent” threads?
GM doesn’t make mistakes and quality is above reproach so obviously the Cobalt recall is Fords fault. Please let the folks on those threads understand the errors of their ways.
Volvo has a vehicle that sell less then the C30? Who knew?
Ford didn’t take any bailout bucks, builds some decent vehicles, has Mike Rowe and the hot Mercury chick. They are on a roll :)
Less than 100 V70s being sold. No wonder why they are going to stop importing them.
A shame though… its a damn good wagon.
Ford is the new (old) GM.
Volvo wagons have never been a huge seller in the USA. The S60 is so low because it is out of production waiting on the new model. The interesting thing is the S40 sales which are good (for Volvo), which makes me ask: why would Volvo axe the model as the rumor mill would have you believe?
The Taurus X buyer may have been the same person who got a great deal on the one Mercury Sable sold last month.
There’s always something lying around a dealership. When I worked with Mitsubishi Motors, one month we reported selling 4 new 3000GT VR4 Spyder convertibles. Mind you, this was more than THREE YEARS after that model was quietly discontinued! FWIW, that model only sold 1618 units.
LOL, you have a weird marketplace
I saw a “New” Ford GT on a dealer’s lot last year. How long has that been out of (a very limited) production? Of course, I doubt that anybody got a screamin’ deal on that one. It was more of a “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it” type of car.
“Okay Ford here’s your choice: you can take the multi-billion dollar bailout you have in your hand, or you can gamble it away and take whatever is underneath this box.”
“That’s a tough one Monty! The bailout sure looks good and it’s a sure thing, but God help me, I gotta see what’s inside that box…”
Hat’s off to the Blue Oval for a successful month.
It looks like they’ll be in the game longer than one of the other former Big 3 from Detroit.
Good job Ford. I’m not a big Ford fan but must admit the turnaround without the benefit of bankruptcy makes this all the more impressive.
Now, not to be a jealous GM fan but….can they keep it up and what about profitability?
I thought it was interesting that the Crown Victoria was down, Town Car up, and Grand Marquis way up. And yes I’m sure someone got a SCREAMING deal on a Taurus X. Hell there’s probably a Mercury Montery SOMEWHERE in this country waiting on a dealers lot, brake rotors rusted brown…
My neighbor once bought a Celebrity two years after the Lumina replaced it. Had about 300 demo miles on it. Got it for about %50 of MSRP.
6300 Taurus’ sold for a 100% gain. Is the D3 curse officially over?
The D3 curse doesn’t apply when the vehicles are sold to fleets.
And look at the continues pathetic MKTaurus numbers…and the continued pathetic Flex numbers…the D3 curse is alive and kicking.
We can trust Z71 for our daily dose of Ford bashing. Nice to know some things stay the same.
Yes, Z71 will not let facts get in the way of constant Ford bashing or blind GM devotion. I appreciate the humor Z71 provides.
According to WSJ Ford sold 56K vehicles to fleet last month, or 39%. Chrysler was 50% fleet, by comparison.
Who’d have thought just a minor refresh of the 11-year-old Focus would lead to such a persistent surge of sales? I wonder if the new Euro Focus and Fiesta will be as successful as the cars they’re replacing. The single Taurus X sale is pretty funny – shame about dumping it – it was a great wagon. Finally, it’s good to see an American family sedan butting right up to the Camry and Accord at last. That said they should have renamed the Fusion the Taurus…that name just doesn’t look right on such a huge, expensive car.