Strong consumer demand for its new products drove Ford Motor Company to a 5 percent increase in total U.S. sales in April with 222,498 vehicles sold. Retail sales grew 7 percent, while fleet sales were up 1 percent.  According to Erich Merkle, Ford Sales analyst,  It was the company’s best April retail sales in nine years.

Cut#1 “All the work we did last year and going into the first part of this year is really beginning to pay off for us, as we’re seeing incredible demand for our newest product out in the market place.” :12 sec.

According to Merkle Ford Mustang, Ford Edge and the Ford SUV’s have been the leaders in sales.

Cut#2 “Edge had a 78 percent increase, it was a record month for Edge sales in the month of April.  We also saw the best April  Ford SUV sales month in company history and we’ve been selling SUV for almost 50 years and this was our best April ever.” :16 sec.

Merkle says the F-150 on dealer lots is turning sales in 20-days, which is very fast, compared to the rest of the industry.

Cut#3 “F-150 is on retail lots is turning in 20 days.  You’ve got an industry for the segment that turns about 85-90 days, so F-150 is turning very fast, they’re not staying on dealer  lots for long. “:13 sec.

According to Merkle, customers cannot get enough of the luxury, high-end product when it comes to the choices they have when purchasing F-150.

Cut#4 “So Lariat, King Ranch and Platinum represented 60 percent of the new F-150’s retail sales in April.  The thirst for these luxury F-150’s,  high end F-150’s, seems very insatiable.” :13 sec.

Turning our attention to Luxury cars, Lincoln had another good month in April according to Merkle.

Cut#5 “Overall, Lincoln was up 20 percent in April, and the more important piece of it is the retail aspect of it, cause retail is very important from a luxury standpoint, that is where most of your volume is done. Retail sales were up 25 percent for Lincoln so that was our best Lincoln sales in seven years, for April.   We’re really seeing good momentum for small utilities the Lincoln MKC which is an all new small utility we have in our lineup, and the Lincoln Navigator, did just an excellent job as its sales were up 36 percent.” :37 sec.