Ford Motor Company posted a 15 percent sales increase in the U.S. in January, with sales of 178,351 vehicles. Retail sales of 128,666 vehicles marked a 13 percent increase, providing the best retail January results since 2004.  Here to explain this double digit increase is Ford’s Sales Analyst Erich Merkle.

Cut #1 ”Our sales were up 15 percent, and our retail sales we had a best January retail sales, since 2004 , so going back 11 years.” :11 sec.

F-Series, America’s best-selling truck for the 38^th straight year, led the way in sales according to Merkle.

Cut#2 “F-Series was up 17 percent and we’re seeing a really fast turn, vehicles are moving very quickly on dealer lots of the new F-150.  Turning about 12 days, and even faster for the high trim models, such as King Ranch and Platinum.”:19 sec.

Merkle says once the Kansas City plant completes its change over, they will contribute greatly to the total number of the 2015 F-150’s produced on a daily basis.

Cut#3 “Right now we’re doing everything we can to meet  demand.  We’ve got Dearborn, which is producing the new F-150, and Kansas City is in change over right now, so we’ll be very pleased when Kansas City comes up on line and we’ll be able to get both of those plants producing.” :17 sec.

According to Merkle, consumer confidence and new products are adding up to a sales serge for Ford at this time.

Cut#4 “What we’re really seeing at Ford, it’s the wide spread acceptance of our newest products, all the things that we worked on so hard last year to launch, things like the Transit van, the Mustang, the new F-150, all those things are staring to create momentum on dealer lots and that’s what’s driving our sales higher.” :21 sec.

Transit Connect sales also increased over 70-percent last month, creating a record for January sales.

 Cut#5 “Well it’s been not just our Transit Connect, but it’s been our vans overall, so if you look at Transit Connect you had a record January sales month best ever since the vehicle was first introuduced.  But when we start taking a look at your vans and we look at our E-Series, the all-new Transit and the Transit Connect combined we did over 13,000 of them,  in the month of January,  which was our best January month for van sales dating all the way back to 2001.  Year-over-year we saw a 39 percent increase in our van sales.” :35 sec.

While Lincoln sales increased 11 percent last month, Merkle says that does not tell the whole story, Lincoln at retail was up 22 percent, driven by their newest products like the new Navigator and the MKC.  In summary Ford had one of it’s best January sales months in over 10 years.

Cut#6 “Yes we were up compared to January of last year, but I think the most important thing is that when you look at our January sales,   it was the best January for us in 11 years.” :14 sec.