Lincoln Sales Up, But Not Enough to Lift Ford

Ford’s premium Lincoln brand surged 7% in August, buoyed by a huge increase in MKX CUV sales, but overall the Dearborn automaker saw a 9% decline for the month on sales of 209,137 light vehicles, WardsAuto data shows.

Ford was down on both a volume and daily-selling-rate basis. August 2016 and August 2015 each had 26 selling days.

Mark LaNeve, vice president-U.S. marketing, sales and service for Ford, attributes the decline to a general slowdown in the industry weighed against exceptionally strong sales in August 2015. Fleet sales also were off 10% to 45,939, in part due to Ford’s effort to pull those sales ahead earlier in the year. Fleet accounted for 21% of August sales, down from 22% in August 2015.

Ford-brand sales dropped 9.6% in August vs. like-2015, dragged down by a 25.4% decline in overall car sales and an 18% swoon in light-truck sales.

F-Series light-duty sales dipped 6.7% compared with year-ago, totaling 62,672 for the month as dealers welcomed the all-new aluminum-bodied ’17 Super Duty trucks to showrooms. Previously hot-selling Escape, Edge and Explorer also declined, while the Expedition large SUV saw another strong month, jumping 68% to 5,725 units.

LaNeve applauded sales of the top-selling Transit small van, up 16.9% to 11,993 units for the month to nearly 102,000 deliveries year-to-date, up 34%.

Lincoln-brand deliveries grew 7% to 9,243 units for the month, led by the MKX midsize CUV that surged 50% from August 2015 to 2,643. The MKZ midsize sedan chipped in a 7.1% gain to 2,754, offsetting declines for the MKS large sedan (-41%) and the Navigator large SUV (-24%).

Ford analysts believe the light-vehicle market has hit a plateau at 17 million units and will remain strong but at a lower level into 2017. The passenger-car share of the market is holding at about 42% with midsize cars stabilizing at 11%.

LaNeve says rather than “chasing volume with incentives” Ford is “accepting industry trends” and adjusting production volume to match. Ford incentives remained essentially flat for the month, LaNeve says, while average transaction prices increased $1,200 per vehicle vs. year-ago on strong sales of high-end Lincoln vehicles and Ford SUVs.

Ford reported inventory of 640,000 vehicles, an 81-day supply, up from 558,000 and a 62-day supply in August 2015.

LaNeve says the increased inventory doesn’t worry him: “I’d rather be a day heavy than a day light.”

[email protected] @bobgritzinger