Soundbites: October 2011 Sales

Ford Motor Company’s October Sales were up 6 percent versus last year and Ford sales analyst, Erich Merkle, says the reason for the gains were not only Ford brand utilities and trucks, but Ford brand cars sales really added to their sales numbers.

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Cut #1:	“Utilities and truck were a driving force behind the gains that we saw in October, but when we start taking a look at passenger cars. Passenger cars year-to-date at Ford were up 18-percent which is more than doubled that of the industry as a whole.” :16 sec.
	Merkle says consumers are in the market for fuel efficient vehicles.
Cut #2:	“The cars that are really doing well, for Ford, vehicles like the Ford Fiesta is doing very well for us and the Fusion. The Fusion is on pace to have a record setting year.” :12 sec
	Year-to-date, Ford is the best-selling brand of vehicles in America with 1,700,618 up 17 percent….which according to Merkle puts Ford on track to increase its market share.
Cut #3:	“The other thing really important, we’re on pace to do almost about a percent point of share gain with the Ford brand this year. We did a little over a percentage point of share gain last year with the Ford Brand and also the year previous to that. So that’s three years in a row, a very, very significant accomplishment.” :21 sec.
	In October Fiesta, Focus and Fusion all posted higher retail sales than a year ago, offset by lower fleet delivers, but what excites Merkle is how strong the Focus is doing on the West coast.
Cut #4:	“Retail sales of the Focus in California were almost double that of a year ago. And out in the New York region, on the East Coast, retail sales were up almost 50 percent compared to a year ago. So the fact is we’ve been pushing these vehicles out to the coast, they’re resonating well and will continue to work our way in to the center of the country, but we’re very pleased with the reception that we’re getting on the coast with this vehicle.” :26 sec.