Ford again trails Toyota
Ford Motor Co. took a step backward on its road to recovery Friday, reporting an unexpected drop in November vehicle sales. That stumble allowed Toyota Motor Corp. to once again overtake the venerable U.S. automaker.
Ford sold 166,196 vehicles last month, a 10.6% decline from a year earlier, as sales of both cars and trucks fell, according to figures compiled by Autodata Corp. Analysts were expecting a gain of 2% to 3%.
Toyota, buoyed by strong sales of its Corolla compact, RAV4 small sport utility vehicle and Lexus luxury cars, sold 196,695 vehicles, a 15.9% improvement from last November and in line with estimates.
It was the third time this year that a surging Toyota has bested Ford in the monthly sales standings, and further lays the groundwork for the Japanese automaker to decisively supplant its Michigan rival as the No. 2 car company in the U.S.
Ford’s share of the U.S. new-vehicle market fell to 13.9% in November from 15.9% a year earlier, while Toyota’s share jumped to 16.4%, according to Autodata. General Motors Corp., which notched a 6% gain in November sales, increased its market-leading share to 24.3%.
Ford, which in the early 1990s commanded about a quarter of U.S. new-vehicle sales, is in the midst of a painful restructuring, shuttering factories and shedding tens of thousands of workers as it struggles to return to profitability.
“The days of market share in the high teens or 20%-plus for Ford are over,” said analyst Jesse Toprak of Edmunds.com, an online automotive information provider based in Santa Monica. “By July of ‘07, Toyota will permanently take over the No. 2 spot in the United States.”
Ford executives called the November sales results a disappointment, acknowledging that they failed to meet their own internal projections. And they had little encouraging to say about the immediate future, predicting that monthly sales gains would be rare in 2007 and announcing further cuts in fourth-quarter production.
Ford said it would cut North American output by 22% in the fourth quarter, up from the 19% reduction announced in October. Production in the first quarter of 2007 is expected to be 750,000 vehicles, down 14% from the first quarter of this year.
The Dearborn, Mich.-based automaker blamed its weak results on several factors, including a planned reduction in fleet and rental car sales and a marketing focus on moving the last of its 2006 models off dealer lots.
Ford also saw sales of its flagship F-Series pickup trucks fall 16.1% in November. Sales of pickups and SUVs -- the chief source of profit for Ford and GM -- have plummeted in recent years as high gasoline prices have scared away mileage-conscious consumers.
Now, the F-Series is also competing with all-new versions of GM’s full-size pickups -- the Chevrolet Silverado and the GMC Sierra -- which recorded gains of 17.9% and 30.5%, respectively, last month. Ford has a redesigned Super Duty -- which accounts for about 40% of F-Series sales -- coming out early next year, but Toyota also is launching an all-new Tundra pickup with an aggressive marketing campaign.
Adding to Ford’s grief: DaimlerChrysler actually knocked Ford into fourth place in the U.S. market in November when sales of foreign brands are factored in (Jaguar, Volvo and Land Rover for Ford; Mercedes-Benz and Maybach for Daimler).
“Is it big news that Ford dropped to fourth last month? Yes. Does it mean the world is changing? Yes,” David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich., told Bloomberg News.
Chrysler got a boost from a 21.8% jump in sales of its PT Cruiser SUV, and Mercedes sales rose almost 21%.
Most automakers benefited from easy comparisons with their results from November 2005, when sales were depressed by the winding down of aggressive discounting programs. The car companies continue to lavish big incentives on customers to move ’06 models, analysts said.
Toprak said factory incentives were averaging $2,200 per vehicle industrywide. Including dealer discounts, savings can reach $10,000 on some big pickups and SUVs, he said.
Combined with the usual seasonal uptick in sales of lucrative trucks and SUVs, the discounts should make December a comparatively good month for vehicle sales, he added.
Overall, U.S. car and light truck sales rose 2.9% in November to almost 1.2 million, compared with a year ago. Year to date, industry sales are down 2.5% at 15.1 million.
*
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
November sales
*--* Sales % change YTD (In thousands from market of units) Nov. ’05 share GM 291.1 +6.0% 24.4% Toyota 196.7 +15.9 15.3 Ford 166.2 -10.6 16.5 Chrysler 164.6 +2.9 12.9 Honda 106.4 +0.6 9.1 Nissan 76.0 -1.6 6.1 Hyundai 28.4 -14.9 2.8 BMW 22.6 -4.5 1.6 Kia 22.2 +10.5 1.7 Mercedes 22.1 +20.7 1.5
*--*
Source: Autodata
Los Angeles Times
