Ford reports sales fell during August
Analysts blame mortgage issues, Nissan sees rise on truck purchases
The Associated Press
DETROIT - Ford Motor Co.’s sales dropped 14.4 percent 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 this year on efforts to wean itself off low-profit sales to rental car companies and other fleet buyers.
Its car sales fell 33.7 percent to 64,864 versus the same month last year, while light truck sales slipped 2.3 percent to 152,572, the company reported.
In August, sales to individual retail customers were down 13 percent, but daily rental sales dropped 44 percent, the company said.
But despite what’s expected to be a slowing U.S. auto market, Nissan Motor Co. reported sales increased 6.3 percent for August.
Nissan truck sales, led by the full-sized Titan pickup, rose 7.9 percent versus a year ago, while its car sales were up 4.1 percent, the company reported.
Its figures include the Nissan and Infiniti brands.
At Ford, the company also said that it plans to make 640,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter, up 6 percent from the same quarter of 2006. Third-quarter production plans also are 640,000 vehicles, the same as previously forecast, Ford said.
Ford, which is in the middle of a restructuring plan that will close 16 factories by 2012 and usher thousands of hourly workers out the door with early retirement or buyout plans, saw its sales decline slightly more than 12 percent for the first eight months of the year.
The drop could give the company a stronger argument in contract talks with the United Auto Workers to cut what Ford says is about a $25-per-hour labor cost gap with its main Japanese competitors. Contracts between the UAW and Ford, General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC expire on Sept. 14.
Ford said sales of its new crossover vehicles, the Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX, rose in August, with 10,165 Edges and 3,421 MKXs sold. But sales of F-Series pickup trucks, generally the top-selling vehicle in the U.S., dropped 9.9 percent.
Ford’s two top-selling cars, the mid-sized Fusion and the small Focus, both saw big declines in August, with the Focus down 14.7 percent and the Fusion off 19.1 percent.
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 slow in August as analysts expected.
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 1 million vehicles lower than the peak of 17.3 million in 2000, according to Ward’s AutoInfoBank.
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Print | posted on Friday, September 07, 2007 6:01 PM