Sales Down, Transaction Prices Up at Ford

Ford brand daily light-vehicle sales in the U.S. fell 9.0% and Lincoln deliveries plummeted 30.0% in January, but the automaker finds encouragement in rising transaction prices, brisk sales of the new Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator and the arrival of the EcoSport, its first entry into the compact CUV segment.

Based on the daily sales rate (25 days in January 2018 vs. 24 year-ago), Ford overall sold 156,446 vehicles last month, a 10.1% decline from the prior year, according to WardsAuto data. That includes a 26.4% drop in car sales, while trucks fell 4.7% from year-ago.

Pickups, SUVs and CUVs continue paying the bills in Dearborn, as F-Series deliveries led the way with 54,972 units, a 2.0% drop based on the daily sales rate. Econoline vans were popular in January, with deliveries up 49.0% to 5,105 units. Ford says average transaction pricing for the F-Series in January was $47,800, up $1,400 from year-ago.

Expedition and Navigator demand has been strong since they launched in the fall, but Mark LaNeve, Ford vice president-U.S. marketing, sales and service, says the Kentucky Truck plant building them has been struggling to keep up. Expeditions are staying on dealer lots only 11 days, while the stay for Navigators is even shorter, at seven, LaNeve says.

Relative to year-ago, Expedition sales were down 18.8% to 3,438 units. That followed a December in which Expedition managed an 8% year-over-year gain under similar circumstances.

WardsAuto notes Expedition inventory coming into January was 52% below year-ago, and in January 2017 the SUV posted a 42% year-over-year increase as the automaker was pushing volume of the previous model.

Ford says retail deliveries of Expedition were up 56.8% last month, while fleet sales were off 66.3% due to order timing. LaNeve says top-of-the-range Platinum models of the Expedition have been popular, representing 29% of the mix and pushing up transaction prices by $7,800. Retail growth has been strong in every region of the U.S., the automaker says.

Meanwhile, Navigator nearly doubled its daily volume over January 2017 to 1,288 units, and

84% of Navigator sales to date have been Reserve and Black Label models, the two highest trim levels. The vehicle has been especially popular in the Western region and has pushed up Lincoln’s overall transaction pricing by $8,700 compared with year-ago.

Despite the bright spots, the only other Ford or Lincoln vehicle showing growth over prior-year was the Fiesta subcompact, with a meager 1.4% gain.

Other Ford vehicles showing big declines based on daily sales were the Flex (-23.0%), Focus (-33.7%) and Fusion (-35.9%). Lincoln’s results were even more dour, with the MKC CUV doing the best, down 31.1%. Doing worse were the MKT (-54.6%), MKX (-40.6%), MKZ (-46.0%) and Continental (-33.0%), according to WardsAuto data.

An encouraging sign is arrival of the EcoSport, which is built in India and represents Ford’s first entry in the compact CUV sector occupied by the Chevrolet Trax, Honda HR-V, Jeep Renegade, Toyota C-HR and others.

EcoSports are just trickling in to U.S. showrooms now, and it will take weeks to fill the pipeline. Some 20,000 units are in transit now. But LaNeve says Ford is excited to finally participate in this growth segment.

Through December, Ford had posted four straight year-over-year increases, based on DSR, driven by the F-Series, Explorer, Edge and Escape.

Overall, Ford brand transaction prices reached $37,000 per vehicle in January (a $2,000 increase), compared with $32,100 for the industry overall, while Ford’s incentive spending fell $200 from year-ago, the automaker says.

LaNeve says fleet sales were down 12.0% to 45,956 units primarily due to a planned change in delivery timing of daily rental sales.

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