Ford’s Sales Rose 6% Last Month

Shares of Ford ($F) are back over $13 on news of strong sales:

Ford Motor reported a healthy March sales gain of 6% as buyers embraced its redesigned Fusion sedan, Escape SUV and its truck models.

Fusion and Escape both had their best month of sales and best quarter ever, Ford said.

Explorer SUV was up 33% from a year ago, posting its best month since the redesign in 2010.

F-series truck boomed, up 16%, tallying the best first quarter since 2007, when the auto slump began.

Wall Street analyst Ryan Brinkman at J.P. Morgan noted that “sales were particularly strong for several of Ford’s more profitable models, including the Explorer and F-series.”

Ford-brand vehicles sold well enough to outweigh a disastrous showing by Ford’s upmarket Lincoln brand. It was down 22.5%, mustering a minuscule 6,825 sales.

Ford is trying to revive the brand by pitching it as the Lincoln Motor Co., but so far the marketing move has no traction.

Lincoln had no gainers. Every model fell considerably. Together, Lincoln cars — MKZ and MKS — were off 31.1%. SUVs — MKX, MKT and Navigator — dropped 22.5%

Overall, Ford said car sales were about even with a year ago, trucks were up 6% and SUVs rose 14%.

Posted by on April 2nd, 2013 at 2:18 pm


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