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Feb 2013 Sales Results. Fusion and Escape Set New Record


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http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=37718

 

 

Ford Motor Company Sales Up 9 Percent, Best February In Six Years; Fusion, Escape Set Sales Records

• Ford Motor Company U.S. February sales up 9 percent – best February in six years, with cars up 6 percent, utilities up 21 percent and trucks up 4 percent
• Fusion sets an all-time February sales record, surpasses last year’s record by 28 percent
• Escape produces its best February sales ever; Explorer reaches best February sales since 2006, up 59 percent
• America’s best-selling pickup for 36 years running, F-Series posts 15 percent gain
• Ford announces 2013 second-quarter production of 800,000 vehicles, up 9 percent from the prior year

Download Full Sales Release (With Tables)

DEARBORN, Mich., March 1, 2013 – Ford Motor Company’s U.S. February sales grew
9 percent with 195,822 vehicles sold. This marks Ford’s best February sales in six years – with cars up 6 percent, utilities up 21 percent and trucks up 4 percent.

“As more new vehicle buyers continue returning to the marketplace, our fresh new product portfolio of fuel-efficient vehicles is winning over customers,” said Ken Czubay, Ford vice president, U.S. Marketing, Sales and Service. “People are buying our all-new Fusion and Escape in record numbers, thanks to strong fuel economy and innovative new technologies.”

Ford Fusion posted record February sales totaling 27,875 vehicles. This is a 28 percent gain over last February’s record.

Escape followed January’s record sales with a new February sales record of 24,110 vehicles – a 29 percent increase over last year. Plus, Explorer boosted its sales 59 percent in February, with 16,586 vehicles sold – its best February sales results in seven years.

America’s best-selling pickup, the Ford F-Series, sold 54,489 pickups in February, a 15 percent increase over last year. F-Series had its best February sales results since 2007. This marks F-Series’ 19th consecutive month of monthly sales increases. Transit Connect also continues to strengthen, selling 3,610 vehicles in February – a 57 percent increase over last year.

Ford also announced its 2013 second-quarter North American production plan. The company plans to build 800,000 vehicles in the second quarter, up 9 percent (63,000 vehicles) from 2012’s second quarter. First quarter production of 770,000 vehicles is unchanged from previous guidance.

 

 

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I just saw the latest Honda Accord commercial and it they use Fusion as their main competitor. That says something when Japanese feel the heat from the new Fusion. Looks like Fusion sales hurt Focus sales a bit. And maybe Escape too took some sales from Focus. But Focus did fine. Analysts are pretty accurate in that they predicted 12% increase and 199,000 total sales. Close enough.

 

Was by Hines Park Lincoln other day and they had at least FIFTY new MKZ's on lot and probably more. They had them parked everywhere out front and in two holding lots...one behind dealership and one block away off of Haggerty Rd. with a bunch of MKS and MKX's. So Lincoln should have bettere March with so many MKZ's in inventory. Detroit is a long way from Hermosillo, so if we have tons of them sitting on lots here, Southwest areas should have even more.

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Looks like Fusion sales hurt Focus sales a bit. And maybe Escape too took some sales from Focus. But Focus did fine.

 

Eh, capacity is split now between Focus and C-Max. When you combine them, MAP's products increased in volume versus last year to 23,992 vs 23,350 Focus the previous year. To me, it looks like we're reaching the natural limits of MAP production.

Edited by ibinubu12
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Eh, capacity is split now between Focus and C-Max. When you combine them, MAP's products increased in volume versus last year to 23,992 vs 23,350 Focus the previous year. To me, it looks like we're reaching the natural limits of MAP production.

 

Well, if that's the case then Fusion sales are beyond the limits of Hermosillo capacity by quite a bit. Hermosillo makes about 6,700 Fusions/week and many of those have to go to South America and Canada. So I would say most months 22,000 Fusions are about tops for production capacity. And FRAP won't be up to full launch speed until end of year. So no way can Ford keep selling 27,000 Fusions/month with spring selling season not even here yet. I would imagine the great lease deals will wind down a bit as Fusion inventory gets skimpy with sales so great. Then I would expect Focus sales to increase to 25,000+ or so.

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Looks like GM did better then estimates, Ford slightly worse than estimates, and Chrysler the worst because of Jeep model changeovers. Ford definitely picked up market share with GM maybe, and Chrysler flat with Toyota, Honda, and Nissan expected to lose market share this month:

 

 

 

In the luxury segment, while Cadillac sales rose 20% to 13,845, Lincoln sales declined 29% to 4,883.

"The housing sector has now joined auto sales in propelling the U.S. economy forward," said Kurt McNeil, GM vice president of U.S. sales operations, in a prepared statement. "More importantly, the recovery in new home construction is reinforcing the underlying improvement in auto buying conditions, especially for pickups.

"Light-vehicle sales have now been running at a mid-15 million unit annual rate since November," McNeil noted. He added, "This sets us up well for the launches of key new products this year, including an all-new generation of Chevrolet and GMC full-size pickups and an all-new Chevrolet Impala and Cadillac CTS."

Ford said utility sales rose 21% with car sales up 6% and truck sales up 4%. Ford Fusion sales rose 28% to 27,875. Escape sales rose 29% to 21,110. Explorer sales rose 59% to 16,586. .

At GM, sales rose at all four brands, led by the 20% gain at Cadillac. Buick rose 15% to 16,150. GMC rose 10% to 35,778 and Chevrolet rose 5% to 158,541. In the tough mid-size sedan segment where Fusion competes, Malibu sales lost 26% to 14,817.

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Well we must remember that a small number of a small number represent a big percentage... When you're in the 5 000 cars range a slight decline makes big percentage difference.

I'm surprised some US dealer have that much MKZ on hand. Not one to be seen around here yet!

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It looks like the Fusion and C-Max are having an impact on Toyota's sales.

 

http://pressroom.toyota.com/releases/february+2013+sales+chart.download

 

Fusion: 27,875 +28%

Camry: 31,270 -9.5%

 

 

Toyota and Honda sales will likely be down Y-O-Y for much of this year, as they were up unsustainable levels in 2012.

 

Seeing Fusion within that reach of Camry volume is a wonderful surprise.

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No real surprises. Good to see the new product doing really well for Ford. Just need to replace or discontinue a few of the aging models (Flex, Mustang) and they'll be pretty solid across the board.

 

As for Lincoln, it simply comes down to this: you can't sell what you don't have. Now that MKZ's are finally shipping (I saw my first on the road the other day, wow looks great in person!) I suspect their numbers will look much better next month.

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If they are selling 16,000+ Explorers a month what is the point of 1,600+ Flexes? My guess is most of those 1,600 would just buy an Explorer anyhow. I can't see the Flex living past it's current cycle.

 

No, the point of the Flex is that (many) of those 1,600 buyers would NOT have bought another Ford product. They are conquest buyers bringing new customers to Ford. That said, my guess is the Flex will die within a couple years.

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Well, if that's the case then Fusion sales are beyond the limits of Hermosillo capacity by quite a bit. Hermosillo makes about 6,700 Fusions/week and many of those have to go to South America and Canada. So I would say most months 22,000 Fusions are about tops for production capacity. And FRAP won't be up to full launch speed until end of year. So no way can Ford keep selling 27,000 Fusions/month with spring selling season not even here yet. I would imagine the great lease deals will wind down a bit as Fusion inventory gets skimpy with sales so great. Then I would expect Focus sales to increase to 25,000+ or so.

Hermosillo has recently had another expansion incorporated into the CD4 change over so capacity is now likely to be well over 350K/year.

It's obvious that Ford had been prioritizing Fusion production and building dealer inventory ahead of MKZ slow roll out,

it seems to have done the trick as 27,000 sales in February is a magnificent result but I also see that Hermosillo

built just over 4,000 MKZ last month too so MKZ sales should start increasing significantly this month.

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It's the type of sales increase that Ford is getting , they're coming without huge incentives and without fleet dumping.

I notice a distinct drop in criticism of Fusion in GMI sales thread, I think that +27,000 sales shocked more than Ford fans...

makes me reall wonder just how far fusion sales can go this summer with enough inventory behind them....

Edited by jpd80
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Do the ongoing low sales for the Flex represent an opportunity for Ford in the next development cycle? Presumably the Flex line is vastly underutilized, and so if Ford could develop a product for that production capacity, they could materially increase sales and market share within their existing manufacturing footprint. Is that product the one that supposedly might share chassis development with the next gen Edge?

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Do the ongoing low sales for the Flex represent an opportunity for Ford in the next development cycle? Presumably the Flex line is vastly underutilized, and so if Ford could develop a product for that production capacity, they could materially increase sales and market share within their existing manufacturing footprint. Is that product the one that supposedly might share chassis development with the next gen Edge?

Oakville builds D3 based Flex/MKT as well as CD3S Edge/MKX and as RJ said, all share the final assembly line.

Great changes are coming for OAP with vehicles changing to variations of CD4 platforms, first Edge MKX

and ultimately replacements for the Flex and presumably, a replacement for MKT will also be on CD4

 

I wonder, will Ford eventually replace all D3 product with bigger versions of CD4 - could we see a new lighter Explorer in years to come?

A new Explorer closer to the Edge's weight would achieve significant reductions in fuel consumption and make the EB 20 more usable.

Edited by jpd80
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The Fusion just barely missed being the second best selling car this month.

 

Camry: 31,270 -9.5%

Accord: 27,999 +35%

Fusion: 27,875 +28%

Altima: 27,725 -15.9%

 

That is a pretty darn tight three-way race.

 

They've all been out long enough that none of them could be said to be still ramping up production, right?

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That is a pretty darn tight three-way race.

 

They've all been out long enough that none of them could be said to be still ramping up production, right?

Fusion now has proper inventory levels to support more of the walk ins that want a car right now...

I think that's where a lot of extra sales come from, closing sales that would have walked out.

 

The secret to sales success is to never let a buyer leave the dealership without a new vehicle or a firm order for one...

the two greatest obstacles are 1) no access to the desired version/color/trim package and 2) no access to attractive financing.

Nail both of those and dealers will rejoice the whole of 2013..

Edited by jpd80
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