Ford Motor Company’s total U.S. sales of 250,813 vehicles for May declined 1 percent from a year ago. Retail sales of 171,535 vehicles decline 2 percent. Fleet sales of 79,278 vehicles are flat.  Here to explain is Ford Sales Analyst, Erich Merkle.

Cut #1 “We’re down about one percent from a year ago, but we’re really pleased with the great demand for our newest products, including Edge, Mustang, F-150 and Transit Vans, which are all operating on very tight inventory.  Right now we’re going through our lowest inventory period as we had planned, for F-150, as we bring our Kansas City assembly plant up to full line speed.”  :27 sec.

Sales of the all-new Ford Edge established a May sales record, with sales up 34 percent and turning in just 13 days on dealer lots. The 2016 Explorer went on sale in May, and retail sales increased 24 percent. Explorer is America’s best-selling mid-size utility with its best May retail sales results since 2004.” 

Cut #2  “So Ford Edge is one of our newest products out there, that’s  turning on dealer lots on just 13-days.  Sales last month were up 34 percent.  So it’s really good news this was a record May for the Edge and we’re getting  set to kick-off our national advertising program this month.”:19 sec.

F-Series, America’s best-selling truck, had sales of 61,870 pickups on tight supply, as the second F-150 facility – Kansas City Assembly Plant – ramps up to full line speed this quarter. Inventory continues building as the plant comes fully on-line.

Cut #3 “ F-150 continues to turn really strong on dealer lots.  We’re looking at 26-days to turn.  May was  planned to be a low point in our inventory for F-150, as we went through the change-over and as we bring Kansas City back-up and fully ramp up that plant as we move through the second quarter of this year.” :22 sec.

Transit vans helped deliver Ford’s best May performance for commercial vans since 1978, with 20,655 total commercial vans sold last month.

Cut #4 “Transit vans has just been amazing, so if we take a look at what we sold in May 11,715 Transit Vans, that was our best month since the vehicle launched in June of last year, and what that has allowed us to do is propel our commercial van line up to a 12 percent increase in May, where we totaled 20, 655 vans, which made it our best van May sales month going back to 1978.” :30 sec.

Mustang sales increased 39 percent in May, with 13,616 cars sold. Year-to-date, Mustang sales are up 55 percent, with a 116 percent increase in southern California, America’s largest sports car market.

Cut #5 “So if you look at nationally Mustang was up 39 percent, year-to-date Mustang Sales were up 55 percent, making it America’s best-selling sports car this year.   But more importantly, the largest sports Car market Southern California, Mustang retails sales through May of this year, up 116 percent and Eco-boost Mustang in that region is doing so well, represents 40 percent of our sales, it’s the number one  seller at retail for Mustang, it out sells the 5.0 V-8 in Southern California.”:32 sec.

Lincoln retail sales were up 10 percent, with 8,152 vehicles sold in May. Lincoln MKC sales totaled 2,289 vehicles, while Lincoln Navigator sales increased 50 percent, with 1,046 vehicles sold.

Cut #6 “Retails sales were 10 percent, that’s likely better than what we saw for the segment over all for the month, and a lot of it was driven  by MKC which we sold 2,289 MKC’s, but also Navigator just continues to do it’s part, with sales increase last month of 50 percent.” :17 sec.