02-01-06: Ford Motor Company’s sales are up by 2% for January 2006, over last year at this time. That is good, but what is better is that the Ford brand cars in the United States that have been the softer spot in the Ford sales story are dramatically improved, signaling early on that their turnaround strategy of focusing on their car lines is beginning to take form. The new Ford Fusion, 500, Freestyle and Mustang helped push the Ford car sales total to an increase of 27.7% increase over January 2005. That is stellar. Even long-in tooth models such as the Crown Victoria, Taurus, and Focus saw modest sales increases. The total January car model sales were 61,078 versus 47,823 for last year at this time. The Lincoln division sales were up as well due to the introduction of the new Lincoln Zephyr entry level model based on the Ford Fusion.

There are still areas for improvement however. While car sales are on the upswing, trucks and SUV’s are still hurting. The new redesigned Explorer has not resonated with buyers, itself with sales that are off over 20% from last year. The Excursion, Expedition, F-150 trucks and Escape SUV’s have also contributed to an over all 6.5% drop in sales for the Ford truck division. It is a sign of the times say industry analysts who chart the historic gas prices seen over the summer caused by hurricanes Katrina and Rita for buyers moving away from big trucks and SUV‘s. In any case a brand new re-design on the Expedition and a replacement for the Excursion are coming soon as well as a freshening for the small Escape SUV. The big news for the category will be the new Ford Edqe which will likely sell well, but further cannibalize sales of the Escape and Explorer models.

Other divisions of Ford Motor Company did well such as Range Rover which posted an all time record of a 34% increase due to popular new models recently introduced. Volvo, Jaguar, and Mercury have been soft due to lacking consumer demand for the brands which is really what skews the overall balance of sales back down to only 2% over last year company wide.