Ford Motor Company U.S. total sales of 183,947 vehicles in February are down 6 percent from a year ago. Retail sales of 125,919 vehicles are off 4 percent. Ford F-Series and Lincoln brand vehicles posted strong gains, according to Ford Sales analyst Erich Merkle.

“F-Series had a great month, it was up 3 percent with over almost 56,000 vehicles sold and that was our best February in 8 years, so since 2006. It’s a very solid number for F-Series, America’s best-selling pick-up.”

Merkle says Lincoln was another big plus for the company in February, with sales up 36 percent in February compared to a year ago.

“We’ve had sales increases for 5 straight months with Lincoln and 4 out of those 5 have been double digits. The two vehicles really that are driving it right now are one MKZ, of course with the new vehicle and then also the MKX is really helping propel those Lincoln volumes, but the momentum seems to be carrying through into this year.”

U.S. total sales of vehicles in February were down 6 percent from a year ago, but Merkle attributes that to more than just the severe weather.

“Well the industry we thought was overall very good for the month of February. It was high 15 million unit vehicle SAAR. Our drop in sales, part of it was, it was weather related, not so much to sales, but our ability to produce and fill our fleet orders for the month of February, so we had to take about 10,000 orders for February and we had to move them forward into March, so we’ll be filling those this month.”

Merkle says the industry always likes to get January and February behind them because historically they are a couple of the weaker sales months.

“March looks like it’s setting up to be a, just a good month for the industry.”

So despite sales declining compared to last year, Merkle sees the second month of this year not changing their guidance moving forward.

“We saw a good deal of strength in February, all things considered, something in the high 15 million vehicle range for seasonally adjusted annualized rate, is a very good month for the month of February, and our guidance continues to be 16-17 million vehicles for this year, we have not changed our guidance. So we’re look for stronger sales of course as the year unfolds.”