Ford US sales up
The US car industry is tentatively positive as various brands record year-to-date sales improvements in JulyJuly sales figures just announced in the US show that, though dominantly negative on year-to-date comparisons with 2008, there are a number of bright spots to be savoured -- at least when you compare on a brand-to-brand, rather than corporate basis.
Among the brands to record better sales in July 2009 than July 2008 are Subaru (up 34 per cent), Volvo (up 26 per cent), Hyundai (up 12 per cent), Mercury (up seven per cent), Kia (up five per cent), Ford (up three per cent) and -- just -- Volkswagen, which was up a mere one per cent for the month.
But the crunch comes when you compare sales on a US-based multi-brand company basis. Here, the story doesn't sound so bright with the year-to-date market down across the board -- except for Ford.
By nudging ahead of 2008 sales by 2.3 per cent, FoMoCo is the only car company representing various brands in the US to score better figures than it did one year ago.
Its sales were helped by strong improvements by Volvo, as well as Mercury and Ford-branded vehicles -- although the actual numbers (apart from the Ford brand which jumped from 138,175 sales in 2008 to 142,135 this year), are relatively small. For example Volvo sold 6441 vehicles compared to 5124 in July 2008.
In all, most Ford brands scored improved sales for July this year.
Ford also appears to have been the biggest beneficiary of the US government backed Cash For Clunkers (United States' Car Allowance Rebate System, or CARS) initiative, with its Focus model the top selling car in the controversial programme. A cautionary note is that Cash For Clunkers reportedly didn't really begin to take affect until the end of July.
An interesting sideline is that Ford's Mustang was outsold by GM's Chevrolet Camaro in July, even if year to date figures for the latter were down on 2008 -- as were the Ford's. Industry observers are suggesting this is an aberration that will eventually be corrected in Ford's favour as GM catches up with its backlog of Camaro customers.
Overall, GM year to date sales in July were down 19 per cent over 2008, putting it behind the Chrysler group where the drop of minus 9 per cent was an improvement over previously reported sales losses.
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