Ford Motor U.S. sales in January totaled 136,710 vehicles, a 7% increase compared with January 2011. Overall auto industry sales were up 11.4% for the month. The overall market for new vehicles wasn’t as strong as the numbers or the media portrayed. Sales to fleets in rose nearly 33% from a year ago. January fleet sales were also up more than 28% from December 2011. This fleet SAAR translated to 3.2 million units, which was up significantly from both January 2011 and from last month. This is largely a Detroit Three problem as offshore makers have limited fleet sales.Ford retail sales increased 8%. The Ford brand sold 131,589 vehicles in January, making it the best January sales month since 2008 as the industry’s uncertain recovery slowly continues with lagging results this month at Ford and General Motors.
The Ford F-Series, America’s top-selling vehicle for the past 30 years, posted January sales of 38,493 vehicles, representing an 8% gain amid signs that the full size pickup truck market in the U.S. is declining. Here, preliminary numbers show that full size trucks now account for only 11% of the total industry.
Ford, GM and Chrysler all remain dependent to a large degree on profits earned from the sales of trucks. And Ford is inexplicably still sticking with its decision to not replace the Ranger compact truck even though GM has a new Colorado pickup coming and Dodge continues to do well with its Dakota in the mid-size segment.
The compact Escape SUV sold 17,259 of the SUVs, its best January ever with an increase of 24% year-over-year. A radically revised Escape is due later this year. Worrisome is a drop off in Fiesta sub-compact sales of -18% to 3,500 units of what remains an expensive small car. The larger Focus easily picked up the gap with sales of 14,400, a 60% increase y-o-y.
Lincoln sales declined yet again at-8% to 5,221 vehicles, a trend that is likely to continue until the new MKZ appears later this year.
About Ken Zino
Ken Zino, publisher (kzhw@aol.com), is a versatile auto industry participant with global experience spanning decades in print and broadcast journalism, as well as social media. He has automobile testing, marketing, public relations and communications experience. He is past president of The International Motor Press Assn, the Detroit Press Club, founding member and first President of the Automotive Press Assn. He is a member of APA, IMPA and the Midwest Automotive Press Assn.
Zino is at home on test tracks, knows his way around U.S. Congressional hearing rooms, auto company headquarters, plant floors, as well as industry research and development labs where the real mobility work is done. He can quote from court decisions, refer to instrumented road tests, analyze financial results, and profile executive personalities and corporate cultures.
He also brings an historical perspective while citing their contemporary relevance of the work of legendary auto writers such as Ken Purdy, Jim Dunne or Jerry Flint, or writers such as Red Smith, Mark Twain, Thomas Jefferson – all to bring perspective to a chaotic automotive universe.
Above all, decades after he first drove a car, Zino still revels in the sound of the exhaust as the throttle is blipped and the driver’s rush that occurs when the entry, apex and exit points of a turn are smoothly and swiftly crossed. It’s the beginning of a perfect lap.
AutoInformed has an editorial philosophy that loves transportation machines of all kinds while promoting critical thinking about the future use of cars and trucks.
Zino builds AutoInformed from his background in automotive journalism starting at Hearst Publishing in New York City on Motor and MotorTech Magazines and car testing where he reviewed hundreds of vehicles in his decade-long stint as the Detroit Bureau Chief of Road & Track magazine. Zino has also worked in Europe, and Asia – now the largest automotive market in the world with China at its center.
