Ford Rides Truck Demand, Fresh Product to Sales Gain

Ford’s U.S. light-vehicle sales grew 4.5% in August, with the Dearborn, MI-based automaker joining an industry push to move ’18 models off dealer lots to make room for a slew of ’19 versions.

Ford sold 212,393 cars and trucks last month, compared with 203,156 in the same period a year ago, according to Wards Intelligence. Toyota inched past Ford for No.2 in the market behind General Motors, as automakers appeared on track to eclipse a 17 million seasonally adjusted annual selling rate with several companies yet to report results.

The continued popularity of trucks, including CUVs, put wind in automaker sales and with its lineup led by the stalwart F-Series pickup Ford was able to take advantage of the trend yet again. Ford sold 174,871 trucks and utility vehicles last month, up 12.5% on a daily-selling-rate basis, compared with 37,522 cars for a 21.3% fall-off versus year-ago.

The F-Series accounted for 76,532 sales last month, up 7.6%. Ford SUVs and CUVs also enjoyed a banner month, led by the Ford Explorer and Ford Escape. The Explorer sold 24,035 copies, a gain of 15.8% over the same period last year, while the Escape drew 24,395 buyers for an increase of 3.2%.

Mark LaNeve, vice president-U.S. marketing, sales and service at Ford, says higher production rates and dealer inventories boosted truck sales in the month. He characterized the newly redesigned Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator large SUVs as two of the industry’s hottest products.

The Expedition sold 5,485 units last month, nearly double the demand of year-ago. The luxurious Navigator accounted for 1,522 deliveries, drawing just over twice the buyers of last year. The high-margin duo helped drive up the average transaction price of premium Ford SUVs by $13,100, the automaker says.

Ford and Lincoln car sales continued to feel the sting of a market overwhelmingly voting for trucks. Only the Ford Taurus large sedan turned higher last month, up 4.6% but on an underwhelming volume of 3,036 units.

Focus compact-car sales fell 30.1%, the Fusion was off 35.1% and the Lincoln MKZ declined 17.6%. Even the critically acclaimed Lincoln Continental large luxury sedan was passed over by buyers as sales dipped 23.3%.

Ford brand sales grew 4.6% to 203,448 units and Lincoln deliveries increased 2.7% to 8,945.

So far this year, Ford has sold 1.6 million light vehicles, a gain of 4.5% compared with the first eight months of last year.

The automaker says fleet sales accounted for 24.1% of sales last month and inventories, including vehicles in transit to dealers, closed August at 605,851 units for a 75 days’ supply, just about even with July and 25,000 units fewer than year-ago.