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Ford Motor Company September 2011 Sales


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Ford Motor Company’s September Sales Post 9 Percent Increase, Paced by Strong Utility and Truck Sales

 

• Ford’s September sales totaled 175,199, up 9 percent versus last year. Ford brand sales increased 14 percent, paced by Ford brand utilities (up 35 percent) – including Escape (up 41 percent) and Explorer (up 204 percent)

• Ford truck sales register 15 percent increase; F-Series exceeded the 50,000 vehicle mark, posting its best sales month of the year with 54,410 pickups sold. Ford sold a record 15,505 EcoBoost engines in September; EcoBoost-equipped F-150 established a new monthly record

 

Download Full Sales Release (With Tables)

 

Soundbites: September 2011 Sales

 

BlueOvalForums.com – Driven by a 35 percent increase in Ford brand utilities and a 15 percent gain in Ford truck sales, Ford Motor Company’s September sales totaled 175,199, up 9 percent versus last year.

 

“Ford continues to deliver strong sales results in a dynamic marketplace with a broad portfolio of fuel-efficient, high-quality products,” said Ken Czubay, vice president, U.S. Marketing Sales and Service. “This is further proof that Ford is offering the vehicles – with the fuel economy and technologies – that people truly want and value.”

 

Ford Brand Utilities: Up 35 Percent

Ford brand utilities had their best September sales month since 2004. Sales totaled 48,798 for the month, delivering year-to-date sales of 425,910 utilities. As the best-selling utility brand in America, Ford utility sales are up 30 percent through September.

 

Ford Escape, America’s best-selling utility, set a September sales record with 20,225 vehicles sold, up 41 percent versus a year ago. Escape has set monthly sales records seven out of nine months this year. Year to date, Escape sales totaled 187,850, up 32 percent.

 

Explorer sales in September totaled 11,336, up 204 percent versus a year ago. Through September, Explorer sales totaled 96,957, representing a 126 percent increase versus 2010.

 

The 2012 Explorer has an EPA-estimated highway fuel economy rating of 28 mpg when equipped with the new 2.0-liter EcoBoost engine. Explorer on the highway now beats Honda Pilot and Jeep Grand Cherokee by 5 mpg, Chevrolet Traverse by 4 mpg and Toyota Highlander by 3 mpg.

 

Monthly Edge sales of 11,680 vehicles ran close to September 2010’s record sales of 12,815 vehicles.

 

“The utility segment continues to expand and has changed dramatically over the years,” Czubay said. “Ford’s continued success in this segment demonstrates our ability to constantly adapt to customers’ changing needs, providing them the fuel economy they want and the functionality they need.”

Ford Brand Cars: Fusion Has a Record September

Fusion sales totaled 19,510 vehicles last month, up 23 percent, making it a record September for Ford’s midsize sedan. Fusion has set monthly sales records 11 of the last 12 months. Fiesta sales totaled 3,967, up 30 percent versus a year ago.

 

Ford brand cars totaled 530,230 through September, up 19 percent versus the same period a year ago – more than doubling the industry sales growth of passenger cars for the same period.

 

Ford Brand Trucks: Up 15 Percent

Ford total truck sales were 15 percent higher in September than a year ago, with 73,225 trucks sold, representing the best sales month of the year and Ford’s best September for F-Series sales since 2007. Year to date, truck sales are up 9 percent, with total sales of 582,769.

 

F-Series sales surpassed the 50,000 mark in September, with 54,410 pickups sold. F-Series is the first industry nameplate to break through the 400,000 mark this year, with 416,388 pickups sold through September.

 

EcoBoost-equipped F-150s had their best-ever sales month, and V6 engines continue to outsell V8s among F-150s, with Ford’s new 3.5-liter EcoBoost and 3.7-liter V6 engines representing 57 percent of F-150 retail sales in September. Check out the Ford F150 Ecoboost Forum here.

 

GM and Chrysler are up quite a bit more

 

Detroit Free Press

 

General Motors’ U.S. sales increased 19.6% in September and Chrysler’s rose 27%. Ford’s sales were dragged down by a 24.1% decline from the Ford Focus compact, whose new model launched in late March.
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I will go ahead and say it so we can get it out of the way:

 

1) MKT sales SUCK!

2) Flex sales SUCK!

3) Ranger sales are rocking! There's no way they should be cancelling that thing!

4) Crown Vic - ditto the Ranger comment

5) On edit, forgot to add: They are going to screw up the Escape with the new model...it is increasing sales! AHHHHH!!!

 

 

Now, we can actually discuss stuff that hasn't been discussed every month for the last 10! :stirpot:

Edited by fordmantpw
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10,309 Focuses? Really Ford? What the heck is the story with this thing? Are you freaking shipping ANY of these to dealers???

 

Its werid...I have a small Ford dealer I go past driving to work and it seems like his first batch of Foci sold really quick and the replacements have been sitting on the lot since the summer time?!?!?! Then again he had next to no stock and in the past 2 months or so I've seen him get in more stuff.

 

 

 

 

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Its werid...I have a small Ford dealer I go past driving to work and it seems like his first batch of Foci sold really quick and the replacements have been sitting on the lot since the summer time?!?!?! Then again he had next to no stock and in the past 2 months or so I've seen him get in more stuff.

 

Well, the dealership my friend bought hers from didn't have a single SEL on the lot. She just happened to show up to test drive one as they were unloading a single one from a truck. She bought it.

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Ford Media

 

GM and Chrysler are up quite a bit more

 

Detroit Free Press

 

 

Common sense would state that with Mercury gone, Lincoln still waiting for new product, Crown Vic about gone along with Town Car, Ranger to be history at end of year, Ford will have hard time beating Year over Year gains in double digit fashion. Add in Focus and Fiesta shortages all summer and not any better this past month, it looks like this is about the best Ford can do......175,000 to 185,000 range tops. Last time I was by Bill Brown Ford which is top 3 Ford sales dealer in Nation, they had 2 Fiestas and 5 Foci on lot. That is pitiful. Asking F-Series, Escape, Edge, Explorer, and Fusion to do all the heavy lifting is asking a bit too much. It would be nice if eventually Fiesta, Focus, and Lincoln could contribute a little more.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Current Drives:

 

2002 Matador Red Ford Taurus SES Sport

2002 Orient Red Metallic Porsche Boxster

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Common sense would state that with Mercury gone, Lincoln still waiting for new product, Crown Vic about gone along with Town Car, Ranger to be history at end of year, Ford will have hard time beating Year over Year gains in double digit fashion. Add in Focus and Fiesta shortages all summer and not any better this past month, it looks like this is about the best Ford can do......175,000 to 185,000 range tops. Last time I was by Bill Brown Ford which is top 3 Ford sales dealer in Nation, they had 2 Fiestas and 5 Foci on lot. That is pitiful. Asking F-Series, Escape, Edge, Explorer, and Fusion to do all the heavy lifting is asking a bit too much. It would be nice if eventually Fiesta, Focus, and Lincoln could contribute a little more.

 

Poor Ford - they'll just have to scrape by on $15B-$20B in operating profit this year. I hope they don't end up in Chapter 11.

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"Ford will have hard time beating Year over Year gains in double digit fashion"

 

More important is profits, not #'s of sales with huge fleet discounts and rebates. Did some expect the Gov't to buy Ford and subsidize Crown Vic PI production forever?

 

but, I agree about Focus production being so low. Why do they insist on pushing My Ford Touch and other 'iPad-ish' stuff? How about more cars with popular features/options for $18K? Focuses on the lots are either plain janes with plastic wheel covers and no cruise control or $26K Titaniums.

Edited by 630land
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Poor Ford - they'll just have to scrape by on $15B-$20B in operating profit this year. I hope they don't end up in Chapter 11.

It's unfortunate that supply problems seem to have affected sales, but consider the lack of inventory. The acres of unsold crappy sleds that did nothing for the brand are gone. What a change. With the new stuff arriving, market share should keep growing in the future. :)

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but, I agree about Focus production being so low. Why do they insist on pushing My Ford Touch and other 'iPad-ish' stuff? How about more cars with popular features/options for $18K? Focuses on the lots are either plain janes with plastic wheel covers and no cruise control or $26K Titaniums.

 

:headscratch:

 

I wasn't aware that adding MyFordTouch slowed production rates for Ford's vehicles.

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I don't really care about low Focus volume--it's serving as a valuable lesson for Ford in the difficulties of implementing "One Ford" in the real world.

 

The lessons learned from this roll-out, hopefully, will be applied to the Fusion & Escape launches.

 

Well, seems the problems I am aware of (supplier issues) would have been a problem if the Focus had been a "One Ford" project or not.

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Why do they insist on pushing My Ford Touch and other 'iPad-ish' stuff? How about more cars with popular features/options for $18K? Focuses on the lots are either plain janes with plastic wheel covers and no cruise control or $26K Titaniums.

 

You know why? Because all the ones with My Ford Touch and other "ipad-ish" stuff are flying off the lots so the only ones left are the super expensive titaniums and the cheap models.

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Not necessarily. I don't know that any other Ford launch in the past 10 years has been as fraught with supplier difficulties.

Perhaps the requirements from Ford to the suppliers are different and/or more demanding such as new technolgies like MFT and new manufacturing processes such as the castor oil IP application?

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Perhaps the requirements from Ford to the suppliers are different and/or more demanding such as new technolgies like MFT and new manufacturing processes such as the castor oil IP application?

 

Or maybe part of it is from the devastating Japanese tsunami. I believe candy apple red metallic is still not available on the new Focus, and that pigment comes from Japan plus possibly some other part issues. And I'm not aware if the dashboard problem from Saline, MI has been solved yet. MAP only occasionally works on Saturday, and I would imagine only reason is lack of parts for assembly. I may be wrong, but it would seem that small, global cars like the Fiesta and Focus would use some parts from Asia and Japan in particular. Parts of Japan are still flattened as if it happened yesterday. Add in the fact that the coastline got lowered over 3 feet by the quake, and they have big problems for years to come.

 

 

 

Current Drives:

 

2002 Matador Red Ford Taurus SES Sport

2002 Orient Red Metallic Porsche Boxster

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I will go ahead and say it so we can get it out of the way:

 

1) MKT sales SUCK!

2) Flex sales SUCK!

3) Ranger sales are rocking! There's no way they should be cancelling that thing!

4) Crown Vic - ditto the Ranger comment

5) On edit, forgot to add: They are going to screw up the Escape with the new model...it is increasing sales! AHHHHH!!!

 

 

Now, we can actually discuss stuff that hasn't been discussed every month for the last 10! :stirpot:

 

1) Yes.

2) Sort of.

3) Because everyone is trying to get their last one before production ends. They should be cancelling. But I do believe having a replacement would be better.

4) Ditto Ranger comment - except there's no need for a replacement.

5) The new Escape is flying because the discounts are high for retail, commercial and rental fleets. It's not that great of a vehicle. It's acceptable and cheap. Some people like that. But you'll never make consistent money as a company that way.

 

Now that that's out of the way.

 

Focus: They've screwed up this launch from day one. Quality problems. Supplier problems. Marketing problems - the biggest problem here. Now that the supplier issues are getting resolved and Doug is dead, I think we have a chance at creating a viable and sustainable growth pattern with the Focus. But it's been a bad year for several of Ford's compact program managers here in the US. I would argue further that Ford has misjudged the market a bit. People are starting to look at the Cruze and Elantra as mid-size car replacements, but the Focus is too small. Dimensions are not quite right - and that will keep it from having as mass appeal. It think it will be completely possible for Ford to maintain 200,000 sales in good years. But I can't see them surpassing that by much unless they come up with some proposition to get consumers to overlook that aspect of the car. But if 200,000 is profitable, you could argue it doesn't matter. I would argue it should (if only a bit) given Ford's position in the marketplace.

 

F-series: Not sure what's going on here. Although the month was decent, the F-series has been off. I suspect the Super Duty is the anchor weighing on sales, but I have no proof to back up that claim. And granted GM and Chrysler are recovering from very depressed levels, but Ford is barely holding its own.

 

I'm not seeing that discipline that made Ford the belle of the ball in 2009/2010. Maybe they're just in a product lull? But, there are gaps opening up in their line-up from a product perspective, even with new product, and there are even bigger gaps in their marketing savvy recently. That is the scariest part. Good marketing won't save a dying company. But bad marketing can kill a good one. Don't get me wrong, their merchandising has been pretty good their lease deals and incentives have spurred particularly Lincoln, Fusion, F-series and Escape sales. But the Focus is not in the discount camp yet - they don't want it to be. But they haven't been building its brand well either (in my opinion, and I've been in and out of the country a lot the last 5 months, so I may have missed something).

 

The Escape, C-Max and Taurus arrive in January-ish. They should be past UAW negotiations. Lincoln should get a nice boost in Q1-ish with the MKS and MKT refreshes (not massive - just sustaining). The MKZ launches late next year. The Fusion in Q3-ish. So, they could pull out a decent 2012, but I see a lot of pressures lowering my expectations of them at least in the medium-term. Amazingly, one of them is not the economy which I expect to play only a minor role in the auto industry next year. The means they're losing competitiveness as our short-term memory forgets bailouts and bankruptcies and focuses on the fuel-efficient car we need to replace the POS we held off replacing.

 

Fingers crossed.

Edited by focus05
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Well if Focus supply has been restricted, then it looks like

buyers have jumped into Fiesta and Fusion instead.

Taurus abd Mustang are both down as CV says goodbye.

 

Fiesta 3,967 3,050 (30.1%)

Focus 10,309 13,587 (-24.1%)

Fusion 19,510 15,918 (22.6%)

Taurus 4,305 6,977 (-38.3%)

Mustang 5,054 5,760 (-12.3%)

Crown Victoria 3,013 1,962 (53.6%)

 

 

Escape, Edge and Explorer are all power along,

Flex still achieved over 2,000 sales this month.

 

Escape 20,225 14,313 (41.3%)

Edge 11,680 12,815 (-8.9%)

Flex 2,084 2,204 (-5.4%)

Explorer 11,336 3,734 (203.6%)

Expedition 3,473 2,949 (17.8%)

 

 

F Series is incredible, over 54,000 sales and Ranger buyers \

have flocked back with over 7,000 sales but TC is a little down..

 

F-Series 54,410 47,433 (14.7%)

Ranger 7,154 3,815 (87.5%)

Econoline/Club Wagon 8,711 8,471 (2.8%)

Transit Connect 2,611 3,571 (-26.9%)

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Focus: They've screwed up this launch from day one. Quality problems. Supplier problems. Marketing problems - the biggest problem here. Now that the supplier issues are getting resolved and Doug is dead, I think we have a chance at creating a viable and sustainable growth pattern with the Focus. But it's been a bad year for several of Ford's compact program managers here in the US. I would argue further that Ford has misjudged the market a bit. People are starting to look at the Cruze and Elantra as mid-size car replacements, but the Focus is too small. Dimensions are not quite right - and that will keep it from having as mass appeal. It think it will be completely possible for Ford to maintain 200,000 sales in good years. But I can't see them surpassing that by much unless they come up with some proposition to get consumers to overlook that aspect of the car. But if 200,000 is profitable, you could argue it doesn't matter. I would argue it should (if only a bit) given Ford's position in the marketplace.

 

Difficult to argue why people are or are not buying a product that is not available for them to even look at.

 

F-series: Not sure what's going on here. Although the month was decent, the F-series has been off. I suspect the Super Duty is the anchor weighing on sales, but I have no proof to back up that claim. And granted GM and Chrysler are recovering from very depressed levels, but Ford is barely holding its own.

 

:headscratch:

 

Last I checked, F-series is up more this year than Silverado/Sierra...and Ram is still a pretty distant 3rd.

 

But, there are gaps opening up in their line-up from a product perspective, even with new product, and there are even bigger gaps in their marketing savvy recently.

 

Such as??

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I'd hold off on the "Elantra and Cruze as midsize replacements" arguments until we see the FE figures for the '12 Fusion.

 

If Ford can return results within a MPG or two of the Elantra/Cruze with the FE leader for the Fusion, that argument is somewhat mooted.

Agreed, how can we truly compare Cruze or Elantra to a mid sized car like Fusion

when the new one could be promising more space and near identical fuel economy....

 

While the internal dimensions of the Cruze are very close to say, a 2003 Mazda 6,

the expectations of buyers regarding a mid sized car are now much different and

probably more like just under a full sized car...

 

Compacts are getting bigger, just like small SUVs but that doesn't make either of them true

Mid sized replacements, it just means that smaller vehicles now encroach on that market

Edited by jpd80
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