Ford reports 14.4 per cent sales decline in August

Ford Motor Co.’s sales dropped 14.4 per cent in August as the struggling automaker ran into a declining market that analysts blame on rising mortgage payments and turmoil in the financial markets.

Ford, the first automaker to release monthly U.S. sales numbers on Tuesday, has blamed declining sales through the year on efforts to wean itself of low-profit sales to rental car companies and other fleet buyers.

Its car sales of 64,864 were off 33.7 per cent when compared with the same month last year, while light truck sales, at 152,572, dropped 2.3 per cent, the company reported.

In August, sales to individual retail customers were down 13 per cent, but daily rental sales dropped 44 per cent, the company said.

The company also said that it plans to make 640,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter, up six per cent from the same quarter of 2006. Third-quarter production plans also are 640,000 vehicles, the same as previously forecast, Ford said.

Ford said sales of its new crossover vehicles, the Ford Edge and
Lincoln MKX, continued to rise, with 10,165 Edges and 3,421 MKXs
sold in August. But sales of F-Series pickup trucks, generally the
top-selling vehicle in the U.S., were down 9.9 per cent.
Ford’s two top-selling cars, the mid-sized Fusion and the small
Focus, both saw big drops in August, with the Focus down 14.7 per
cent and the Fusion off 19.1 per cent.
Ford’s sales include the Ford, Lincoln and Mercury brands as well
as Volvo, Jaguar and Land Rover.

In an effort to boost sales this month, Ford also announced that it would offer up to $1,000 cash incentives on most 2007 and 2008 models on top of all existing sales and lease offers. The offer runs through Oct. 1.

Ford’s sales are a sign that the overall U.S. auto market will continue its slowdown in August as predicted by industry analysts.

The automotive forecasting company CSM Worldwide has predicted that U.S. sales will total 16.2 million in 2007, or 350,000 fewer vehicles than last year. That would be the lowest annual sales level since 1998 and more than one million vehicles lower than the peak of 17.3 million in 2000, according to Ward’s AutoInfoBank.

« Chairman of India’s Tata Group confirms interest in buying Ford’s Jaguar, Land Rover units | Ford Motor buys Romanian auto plant for US$77.9 million »

Comments

Bu Yazı Hakkında

Orlando Motors Sport üzerinde şu anda okumakta olduğunuz 'Ford reports 14.4 per cent sales decline in August' isimli yazı 18 Mar 2008 tarihinde, saat: 15:07 'de admin tarafından gönderilmiş.

Benzer yazıları Ford kategorilerinden okuyabilirsiniz. Yazar ile irtibat kurmak için email gönderebilirsiniz. Yazıya yorum yapabilir ya da yapılan yorumları RSS 2.0 ile takibe alabilirsiniz.

Eklenen Son Yazılar

Bağlantılar