September Sales a ‘Tale of Two Hurricanes,’ Ford Says

Ford sales swooned in September despite a seventh month of F-Series pickup deliveries in excess of 70,000 units and steady strength of the Dearborn, MI-based automaker’s SUV lineup. The company delivered 191,627 light vehicles in the month, off 7.7% on a daily sales basis.

There were 25 sales days in September, one less than 2017.

Mark LaNeve, Ford vice president-U.S. marketing, sales and service, attributes some of dip to the effects of Hurricane Florence on Eastern seaboard sales and the spike in September sales in the Houston area a year ago following Hurricane Harvey.

“It was a tale of two hurricanes,” LaNeve says, noting Ford’s Houston-market sales fell 44% year-over-year in September, equaling about 8,000 units.

Planned reductions in fleet sales, including fulfilling large government orders, also contributed to the decline, LaNeve says.

Ford delivered 70,233 light-duty F-Series pickups, a 4.6% drop, although total deliveries of the best-selling vehicle in the U.S. are running 3.0% ahead of 2017 through September at 631,395 units, according to Wards Intelligence data.

LaNeve lauds the SUV segment as a bright spot, posting a 1.1% increase on nearly 67,000 sales, with strong demand for the new Expedition and Navigator offsetting declines for the aging Escape and Explorer that are due for replacement in 2019.

Expedition’s daily sales grew 32.4% with 3,627 deliveries while the Navigator continued to post eye-popping gains with an 84.4% increase on 1,257 deliveries.

Car sales declined 22.7% on daily basis with 37,112 deliveries in the month. The Focus fell 36.3% and Fusion 22.3%. The Mustang saw a modest 2.6% increase.

The Lincoln brand fell 3.5% on 8,168 sales, including a 20.3% decline for the Continental sedan.