| 02/02/2010 |
GOOD NEWS FOR FORD |
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(AP) -- Ford Motor Co.'s sales rose 25 percent in January, as a stronger economy boosted fleet sales.
Ford said Tuesday car sales rose 43 percent while sales of trucks and SUVs climbed 15 percent. The automaker also more than doubled sales to rental car agencies and other fleets as the credit crunch eased and businesses started spending again. That helped compensate for retail sales, which fell 5 percent following Decembers 18 percent increase.
January is typically a weak month for U.S. auto sales, but automakers were expecting sales to improve over last January, when they dipped to a 26-year low because of the tough economy. Sales never really recovered last year, totaling 10.4 million cars and light trucks, the lowest since 1982.
George Pipas, Ford's top sales analyst, said he did not see evidence that Ford was taking buyers from Toyota Motor Corp., which halted U.S. sales of eight popular models due to faulty gas pedals in the final week of the month.
Ken Czubay, Ford's vice president of sales, said Toyota's actions may have hurt sales overall toward the end of last month.
"Consumers were uncertain as to where to go relative to buy a new car, just what's the value of the trade-in," he said. "There was a tremendous amount of uncertainty. I don't think the month enjoyed its normal pickup on the last weekend of the month."
Dealers reported having trouble assigning values to Toyota models that customers wanted to trade for a new car until the problems have been fixed.
Normally more sales take place at the end of each month as automakers and dealers sweeten deals to meet their monthly sales goals.
Ford was expecting to snatch some sales from Toyota, which stopped selling the Camry sedan and seven other cars and trucks on Jan. 26 following a recall over sticky accelerator pedals. Ford and General Motors Corp. are offering incentives to Toyota drivers who trade in vehicles.
Toyota has said dealers will get the parts to fix the problem by the end of this week, but in the meantime Toyota could lose thousands of sales in January and February. The recall affects 2.3 million cars and trucks in the U.S.
The car-buying site Edmunds.com predicted Toyota's U.S. market share would drop to 14.7 percent in January, its lowest level since March 2006.
Ford, the only Detroit automaker to avoid bankruptcy court, estimated that its U.S. market share rose to 16 percent in January, up 2 percentage points from last January. Ford ended 2009 with its first full-year gain in market share since 1995.
After a strong December, automakers were anxious to see whether any momentum would carry into January and signal that an economic recovery is underway. Edmunds predicted overall sales would be up 7 percent from last January but down 32 percent from December, when year-end clearance sales fueled buying.
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