Ford, Lincoln and Mercury sales were down 39 percent in January versus a year ago, however, Ford Motor Company sales analyst George Pipas says, Ford F-Series Truck and Fusion mid-size sedan, paced Ford to a fourth consecutive month of retail market share increases. This marks the first time since 1995 Ford has achieved a retail market share increase four-months in a row.
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| Cut #1: | "Even our retail sales decline was down 27% but that is less than the industry average, infact, only Ford and Honda have achieved market increases at the retail level, in each of the last four months." :16 sec. |
| The message, according to Pipas, is that Ford appears to be making positive in-roads in the way people think about and perceive the Ford product. | |
| Cut #2: | "Since October, Ford's new products and announcements and accomplishments in the area of fuel economy, safety and quality seem to be connecting with consumers in ways they haven't for quite some time." :13 sec. |
| That, however, does not minimize the 39 percent sales decline which Pipas says is very serious, but at least it appears retail sales have settled in. | |
| Cut #3: | "It's encouraging to see that we're in a patch now, where retail demand from consumers appears to have stabilized." :07 sec. |
| Pipas also says industry sales last month were consistent with Ford planning assumptions. | |
| Cut #4: | "We've always thought that the first part of 2009 was going to be the toughest part, we believe that the various monetary and fiscal actions that have been implemented and that are under consideration and that will be implemented in the future should help the economic situation in the U.S. stabilize in the second half of the year and that should provide a boost for auto sales." :29 sec. |
| Ford inventories were 420,000 vehicles at the end of January which is 156,000 vehicles lower than a year ago. Over the past year, Ford's inventories were reduced by 27 percent, consistent with the company's sales decline of 22 percent during this same period. | |
| Cut #5: | "Ford was the only manufacturer in 2008 where our sales and our inventories tracked in parallel, this was painful to take these production cuts, but at this point we believe our inventories are at a level, that we will be comfortable with as long as the industries rates stays at about 10-million." :19 sec. |