Still the best selling vehicle in the United States, although at lower rates than previously.
Ford Motor Company U.S. sales in December increased to 210,140, a gain of 10% compared to 2010. Total Ford Motor Company sales for the 2011 calendar year increased to 2,148,806 vehicles, up 11% from 2010 – about the same rate as an auto market that expanded more than 10%.
How Ford’s sales performance is interpreted depends on your view on whether the Number 2 U.S. automaker in sales should have picked up more than a3.7% increase in passenger car sales (industry +9%) with all the major Japanese automakers virtually out of the market for months (May to September or later, and still not completely recovered) because of natural disasters.
In fact, Ford car sales were actually down 16% in December. Lavishly publicized Fiesta sub-compact and Focus compact launches were not strong successes as high sticker price resistance appeared to overcome their relatively good fuel efficiency in a year when U.S. gasoline prices stayed well above $3 a gallon.
Nevertheless, there were strong pickup truck and crossover sales as Ford brand utility sales at 579,626 vehicles in 2011, were up 31%, making it the best-selling utility brand in America. Sales of the revised Explorer were up 124%, with 135,704 sold. Record Escape sales at 254,293 were up 33% for the year, albeit with incentives on the aging compact model, including an all-time monthly sales record in December of 25,574 vehicles.
As a result, in December total Ford brand sales were 201,737, up 16% from a year earlier, the first an automotive brand hit the 2 million mark since 2007. Ford sold 68,278 F-Series pickups in December, representing its best December sales results since 2006. For the year, F-Series sales totaled 584,917 trucks, making it the only vehicle to break the 500,000 vehicle sales mark last year.
Ford Fusion had a record year with 248,067 vehicles sold, but the Toyota Camry retained its best selling car title at 308,510 Camry models even as it sales declined compared to 2010 because of earthquakes, tsunamis and floods that wreaked havoc with manufacturing output.
Moribund Lincoln sales were flat in 2011 at 85,643. Ford says wait until next year when some new products will appear. Following the Ford Jaguar debacle, success is also not a word that can be applied to Ford’s management of Lincoln, which is a poseur in the world of luxury cars dominated by the German Brands and Toyota’s Lexus, which even though it was out of the U.S. market for five months this year because of the Japan earthquake, still managed to outsell Lincoln by a better than 2:1.
“The year finished on a high note, with industry sales momentum strengthening as the year came to a close,” said Ken Czubay, Ford vice president, U.S. Marketing, Sales and Service.
For 2012, Ford expects the global economy to expand in the 3%, extending a slow global economic recovery to a third consecutive year. Global industry sales are projected to range from this year’s 75 million to 85 million.
