Ford Sales Slip 2% as Accord Passes Taurus for Top Spot

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. on Friday posted a 2% sales decline for April as its Taurus lost the title of best-selling car in America to its archrival, the Honda Accord.

The No. 2 U.S. auto maker said it sold 332,777 cars and light trucks in the United States last month--a 2% decline based on a daily selling rate. This year, April had 26 selling days, compared with 25 in April 1995, when Ford sold a total of 326,557 vehicles.

The overall figure was dragged down by slumping sales of domestically built cars, which fell 5.3% to 141,214. Sales of Ford’s North American-built trucks rose a tepid 0.9% to 187,034.

Ford is the last of the major auto makers to report April sales and the only one of the U.S. Big Three to report a decline. But Ford’s weaker figures and soaring gasoline prices were not enough to bring down what was a healthy performance for the industry overall.

Paced by strong car sales, manufacturers sold 1,330,151 light vehicles in April, an 8% increase from April of 1995. U.S.-produced cars were up 12.3% to 646,393 units. Sales of trucks built in North America climbed 9.6% to 534,795.

The seasonally adjusted annualized rate for April was 14.6 million, slightly lower than what some analysts had expected. The rate was down from an exceptionally strong 15.9 million for March, but up from 14.1 million a year ago.

Michael Luckey, president of Luckey Consulting Group, said the seasonal factors used by the Commerce Department to compute the annualized selling rate make the market seem weaker than it is.

“Eight percent is still a good gain,” he said. “We think everything is on track.”

Although Taurus sales inched up 2.7% to 32,009 for April, another round of financing and lease rate cuts were not enough to lift the car past the fast-gaining Accord.

From January through April, Honda Motor Co. sold 124,927 Accords, compared with 123,837 for Taurus.

For the month, Honda sold 33,585 Accords, the second month in a row it outsold the Taurus.