Ford, Lincoln both show growth in June 2012

Ford Motor Company as a whole “only” posted a gain of 7% last month which ranked them towards the bottom of the list in terms of growth by major automotive groups but that is largely due to the fact that FoMoCo was in better shape at this time last year than many other automakers (especially Toyota, Nissan and Honda). The Motor Company sold over 207,000 vehicles last month, ranking them second to only GM and putting them almost 30,000 units above 3rd place Toyota. Through the first six months of 2012, Ford Motor Company has sold 1,143,623 cars, trucks and utility vehicles (only 41,962 of which are Lincoln models), putting them 6.6% ahead of where they were after the first half of 2011.

Ford was the top selling brand in the US market in June 2012, moving 200,215 units en route to an improvement of 7.2% compared to June 2011. Ford was lead in growth by the Explorer and the Flex – both of which posted gains of 34.5% compared to the same month last year. The compact new Ford Escape was third in growth rate among all Ford brand models with a jump of 28%...and who said that fuel prices were driving people away from utility vehicles? In terms of sales volume, Ford’s top performer was the mighty F-Series pickup with 55,025 units sold as it makes a run to yet again lead the American auto industry in annual sales volume. The Escape was second in sales with 28,500 SUVs sold and the Fusion was third with 24,433 sedans sold.

On the year, the Ford brand has moved 1,101,661 vehicles, putting them 6.9% ahead of their pace in 2011 through the first two quarters while also holding a lead of 139,999 units over Chevrolet (currently sitting at second in the US market in terms of sales volume).
The Ford brand’s 2012 sales through the first half of 2012 break down as follows:
Model (Annual sales total – Increase/Decrease)
F Series (301,141 – up 14%)
Fusion (136,849 – up 3.9%)
Focus (131,423 – up 34.1%)
Escape (127,167 – up 3.7%)
Explorer (75,721 – up 15%)
E Series (67,265 – up 7.5%)
Edge (65,436 – up 9.1%)
Mustang (48,624 – up 24.5%)
Taurus (35,365 – up 5%)
Fiesta (31,326 – down 25.6%)
Expedition (18,613 – down 0.4%)
Ranger (18,442 – down 38.6%) – Out of Production
Transit Connect (16,954 – up 11.9%)
Flex (16,489 – up 19.5%)
Heavy Trucks (3,240 – up 8.8%)
Police Interceptor Sedan (2,856 – New Model) – Taurus based police model
Crown Victoria (2,577 – down 91.5%) – Out of Production
Police Interceptor Utility (2,173 – New Model) – Explorer based police model

The Lincoln brand did what it hasn’t managed to do regularly in June 2012 and that is posting a positive growth rate with a jump of 2.5% compared to June 2011. Lincoln was led in growth by the MKT which posted a stunning 76.5% increase followed by the MKZ at 32.9% and MKX at 8.5%. In terms of sales volume, the MKZ was the top dog from Lincoln with 3,137 units sold while the MKX was second with 1,922 units sold and the MKS was third with 1,091 units sold in month.

During the first half of 2012, Lincoln has moved 41,962 units – a slight decrease compared to the 42,003 units the luxury automaker sold during the first half of 2011. Even though the brand has posted a slight negative growth over the first half of the year, it is important to notice that the existing models are all posting positive growth this year. These units are broken down by model as follows:
Model (Annual sales total – Increase/Decrease)
MKZ (14,539 – up 4.5%)
MKX (12,428 – up 14.9%)
MKS (6,804 – up 31.4%)
Navigator (3,856 – up 1.7%)
MKT (3,648 – up 45.5%)
Town Car (687 – down 88.1%) – Out of Production