Ford starts out 2012 with a year over year gain

2012 will prove to be an interesting year for the folks at Ford Motor Company, for the first time in decades, the automaker begins a year with just two brands under their company crest. Although Mercury was mostly a lame duck in 2011, the middle child brand did move some units but in 2012 – FoMoCo will rely strictly on the success of their Ford and Lincoln brands. To some, this might seem like a bad thing but in reality, Ford hasn’t lost brands so much as they have trimmed some unwanted and unneeded fat (sorry Mercury fans!).

The Ford brand was the top dog from the Motor Company that sports the same name, improving by 8.3% over January 2011 and placing themselves atop the list of the American markets top brands in terms of sales volume with 131,589 cars, trucks, vans and sport utility vehicles sold. The top model from Ford in terms of growth was the compact Ranger pickup, with an increase of 77.1% over January 2011.
This is interesting as the Ranger has been out of production for a short time now with no intention by Ford of introducing a replacement in the US…but consumers look to be scrambling to get their hands on the last of the Rangers sitting on dealer lots around the country. The sporty new Ford Focus (shown above in ST trim) was second in growth with a jump of 59.8% while the Ford Explorer continued its strong growth with an increase of 35.6% - and who said a unibody Explorer wouldn’t sell? In terms of sales volume, the Ford F Series was, as always, the top model from Ford with 38,493 new trucks sold (an increase of 7.5%). The Ford Escape was second in sales with 17,259 compact SUVs sold and the Focus rounds out the top three in sales with 14,400 units sold. The Ford brand will likely continue to see things grow through 2012 with new models like the 2013 Ford Fusion and 2013 Ford Escape hitting showrooms around the country – both of which improve on already very popular models.

The luxury Lincoln brand from Ford Motor Company struggled a bit in January, moving just 5,121 vehicles and showing a negative growth of 7.9%. Lincoln was lead in growth by the flagship MKS sedan, which improved by 23.3% while the Navigator (12.1%) and the MKX (6.7%) rounded out the top three. In terms of sales volume, the Lincoln MKZ was the top performer with 1,662 midsized sedans sold while the MKX crossover was second with 1,650 units sold and the MKS was third with 741 units sold in January 2012. Ford has repeatedly promised more new or refreshed models for the Lincoln brand in the coming year – beginning with the lightly refreshed MKS sedan – but Lincoln dealerships are still hoping that these new models come sooner than later.