Lincoln booms for Ford in July 2011

Ford Motor Company had another solid month in July 2011, with 180,865 vehicles giving them a year over year gain of 8.9% - putting them above all major automotive groups in terms of sales growth with the exception of the BMW and Chrysler groups.

Ford Motor Company moved 180,865 cars, trucks, vans and SUVs last month which was a decrease of roughly 6,000 vehicles but the month before but based on a year over year (comparing July 2011 to July 2010), the existing brands of Ford Motor Company had a great month. The company’s overall growth is slowed a bit by the exclusion of the almost 7,000 vehicles sold by Mercury but in the absence of the middle child brand, Lincoln has grown to take up some of the slack while the Ford brand has continued on, full speed ahead.

The Ford brand was Ford Motor Company’s top brand in terms of sales with 173,051 – making them the top selling single brand in the US market (Chevrolet is second with 149,005). This gave Ford a 12.7% gain over July 2010 and as usual, the F Series truck family was Ford’s bestselling model with 49,104 trucks sold. The Ford Escape was the next best model in terms of sales volume with 24,411 compact SUVs accounting for a 66.2% improvement over last year. Ford’s bestselling car in July 2011 was the trusty Ford Fusion with 19,318 units sold but thanks to the influx of new 2012 Ford Focus models to showrooms around the country, the new Focus was Ford’s next best model in terms of sales with 14,889 units sold. The Ford Explorer was the top model in terms of sales growth, with the redesigned SUV selling 9,897 examples for a gain of 107.8% over last July. The aforementioned Escape was second in growth with 66.2% while the new Ford Fiesta rounded out the top three with an improvement of 58.1% over the same month last year. The Ford brand can expect to see more growth over the coming months as they roll out new EcoBoost powered models including the new Explorer and Edge.

The Lincoln brand was Ford Motor Company’s shining star in July 2011 as the luxury brand saw a gain of 39.9% over last year. Lincoln struggled early in the year but with the second straight month of growth, it looks like the premium brand is climbing out of the funk created by the termination of the Mercury brand. Lincoln was led by the tried and true Town Car, which saw sales increased by over 116% from last year in moving 891 luxury sedans. The Lincoln MKZ (cousin to the Ford Fusion) was second in growth with an improvement of 80.4% and the MKX (Ford Edge) was third with a 32.7% gain over last year. The awesome Lincoln MKS was next in line with an improvement of 12.8% and the Navigator rounded out the positive growth group with an increase of 1.9% over last year. The Lincoln MKT crossover was the only Lincoln model to see negative growth in July 2011 and with promises from Ford management to the Lincoln dealerships that new models are on the way – the fact that the current lineup is battling back from the loss of the Mercury models is a great sign for Ford.

Other Sales News:
Lincoln shows growth, helps Ford in June 2011 sales race
Chrysler leads in growth for July 2011 lead by Jeep
The Camaro outsells the Mustang, Challenger, 370Z in July 2011
The Nissan Leaf clubs the Chevy Volt in July 2011