Ford Tops GM 1st Time in 62 Years; Profit $3.3 Billion

Ford Motor Co., the nation’s second largest auto maker, today reported nearly $3.3 billion in 1986 profits, surpassing both industry-leader General Motors Corp. and No. 3 Chrysler Corp. and improving 31% over 1985.

The last time Ford out-earned GM was in 1924.

The No. 2 auto maker said it earned $3.29 billion, or $12.32 a share, on record worldwide sales of $62.7 billion in 1986, compared with $2.5 billion, or $9.09 a share, on sales of $52.7 billion, in 1985.

GM, the nation’s largest auto maker, two weeks ago said its earnings slipped 26% to $2.95 billion, or $8.21 per share, on revenues of $102.8 billion in 1986.

Chrysler said it earned $1.4 billion, or $9.47 per share, on sales of $22.59 billion in 1986, down 14.6% from a year earlier.

Ford’s fourth-quarter earnings increased 9% over fourth-quarter 1985, the company reported.

“Today’s results did not come easily; they required the teamwork of all Ford employees, pulling together, to produce the best cars and trucks designed and built in North America,” Ford Chairman Donald Petersen and President Harold Poling said in a statement.

Industry analysts had predicted for months that Ford’s earnings would surpass its competitors’ because of the success of Ford products including the aerodynamic Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable sedans, and because Ford had less inventory buildup and lower in-house costs than GM.

GM reported a 69.5% plunge in fourth-quarter earnings from its 1985 fourth-quarter results as a result of slow sales, the high cost of incentive programs, high production costs, heavy capital investment and a one-time charge for future closure of nine plants and parts of two others.