Ford sales soar: Automaker tops 2 million units in 2011

By Joseph Szczesny
For The Macomb Daily

For the first time since 2007, Ford Motor Co. reported Ford brand sales this year have officially topped 2 million vehicles.

Erich Merkle, Ford?s sales analysis manager, said Friday Ford is the first automotive brand to hit the 2-milllion-unit sales mark in the U.S. since 2007. Reaching the milestone secures Ford?s status as the best selling brand in the United States.

?Ford?s lineup of high-quality, fuel-efficient cars, utilities and trucks continues to attract more and more new customers,? Merkle said.

?With gasoline prices tracking higher than last year, customers continue to move toward smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles, whether they are passenger cars or utilities,? he added.

Both the Ford Fiesta and Ford Focus achieve 40 mpg highway, while the Ford Explorer brings a class-leading 28 mpg highway with its new EcoBoost engine, he said.

Ford?s smallest utility, the fuel-efficient Escape, has achieved record sales volumes this year and is

America?s best-selling utility vehicle, Merkle added.

Overall, Ford brand small cars are on pace to post an increase of more than 20 percent this year. Ford brand utilities are tracking to post more than a 30 percent gain.

Earlier this week, TrueCar.com, which tracks sales data across the United States, estimated Ford Motor Co.?s overall sales increased 6.8 percent this month.

For December 2011, new light vehicle sales expected to increase 8.1 percent to 1.23 million units. Continued...

Meanwhile, incentive spending has dropped in December. The industry average incentive spending per unit will be approximately $2,563 in December 2011, which represents a decrease of 2.6 percent from November 2011 and down

3 percent from December 2010, TrueCar reported.

Used car sales are estimated to be 2.9 million units, up 1.7 percent from December 2010, and up 10.4 percent from November 2011.

?December?s sales rate was a continuation of the rather slow and steady recovery that now symbolizes 2011,? said Jesse Toprak, vice president of Industry Trends and Insights for TrueCar.com.

?This year was absent of a blockbuster sales month, but we see this pace of growth as healthy and sustainable in the coming year, where the industry is going to sell nearly 14 million units based on the merits of its products and improved economy,? he said.

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Source: http://www.macombdaily.com/articles/2011/12/30/news/doc4efe9a55ec9ad957608231.txt

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