Ford F-Series sales up 15% in August; overall Ford retail sales down 2.7%; sales of cars down 18.9% YTD
04 September 2017
Ford F-Series pickup sales in the US totaled 77,007 units for August, a 15.0% gain. Overall, Ford’s US sales totaled 209,897 vehicles for August, a decline of 2.1%. Fleet sales were down 0.2% on sales of 45,830 vehicles; August retail sales totaled 164,067 vehicles—down 2.7% year-on-year.
Demand remains strong for high trim-level Super Duty trucks, with Lariat, King Ranch and Platinum accounting for 53% of retail sales last month. This, together with demand for Raptor, translates into a $3,400 gain in F-Series average transaction pricing versus 2016—now $45,600 per vehicle reported.
Ford Explorer and Expedition SUV sales were up a combined 6.3%, at retail. Explorer retail sales were up 6.1% while Expedition saw a gain of 7.6%; in both cases, an overall decline is the result of fleet order timing.Lincoln Navigator retail sales increased 4.4% in August; overall Navigator sales declined due to fleet order timing of the vehicle.
Ford sales of cars in August dropped 8.6% year-on-year; year-to-date sales of cars are down 18.9% compared to 2016, while sales of trucks are up 2.4%. In August, cars represented 22.7% of Ford vehicles sold. SUVs accounted for 31.3% and trucks accounted for 46%.
With the increasing frequency of natural disasters like floods and wildfires it makes you real popular with your neighbors if you have a big truck that can drive through deep pools of water and haul away tons of personal items during evacuation. Not to mention how useful a truck is during clean up and recovery. It seems that if everyone had a truck we'd be able to cope with climate change a lot better. A truck in every driveway should be the slogan for greens who can't sleep at night worrying about climate change.
Posted by: Calgarygary | 04 September 2017 at 05:15 AM
@Calgary. Good point. You could also make electric ones with the batteries on the roof - to keep them dry.
Posted by: mahonj | 04 September 2017 at 08:13 AM
More heavier pick-ups and modified Monster trucks gas guzzlers would create more pollution, more climate changes, more weather extreems with more storms, floods and forest fires.
Not a way to win against nature.
mahonj has a come point to fix both problems. Alternatively, batteries could be installed in waterproof boxes and e-motors could be liquid cooled and sealed.
Posted by: HarveyD | 04 September 2017 at 08:59 AM
With luck, the gas-price spike from Harvey will reverse this troublesome trend. It will remind at least some people that low and stable gasoline prices are an abberation over the last 40 years.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 04 September 2017 at 11:42 AM
Large SUVs and heavy 4 x 4 pick-ups gas guzzlers have become the vehicles of choice in most of USA and Western Canada, where gas has been relatively too cheap.
Would a progressive increase in Federal fossil fuel taxes convince more people to drive smaller/lighter more efficient vehicles?
Would many more devastating storms be more convincing?
Posted by: HarveyD | 06 September 2017 at 11:08 AM
@Harvey, an increase in gas tax sounds like an obvious idea, but I cannot see Trump or the republicans going for it.
Gas is about 2x more expensive ($1.61 vs $0.75) but people get by (less powerful cars).
More storms would not be convincing for those people.
Posted by: mahonj | 07 September 2017 at 04:41 AM
I suppose they could make a PHEV 4x4, the weight is a bit much but the mileage would improve.
Posted by: SJC | 08 September 2017 at 06:12 AM