DEARBORN, Mich., Nov. 2, 2016 – Overall U.S. sales for Ford were down 12 percent in October versus a year ago, with 188,813 vehicles sold.

With us is Eric Merkle, Ford Sales Analyst with a look at sales,  behind the numbers.

Cut #1  “ So overall sales were down 12 percent,  Fleet sales were down 24 percent and that’s in line with what we have been talking about throughout the year. 

In the first half we were very front end loaded with a lot of fleet sales in the first-half of the year, but in the second half of the year, we’re seeing lower fleet sales per our plan.” :20 sec.

According to Merkle, Industry sales overall were down for the month of October.

Cut #2  “On the retail side of the ledger, our sales were down 7 percent and over all that is pretty much in line with the industry as the industry was off a little bit, given the record sales performance that we had seen at this point last year.”     :15 sec.

Merkle says there is no reason for concern.

Cut #3  “The industry is not quite as strong as it was last year, but we’re going up against some really tough year-over-year comparisons.  So we expect that the industry will be down a little bit  compared to record sales number we were achieving in the second half of last year particularly.” :16 sec.

U.S. Sales of Ford Transit , on the other hand, were up 9 percent.

Cut #4 “We had another really nice gain out of Transit, and Transit has really been up all year.  In fact it’s now the best-selling cargo van in the world, and the U.S. has been a big part of that.  In October it was 10,202 vehicles and that was up again 9 percent for Transit Vans.”  :18 sec.

Lincoln continues to sell well on the market and Merkle says it’s because of the new products coming from that brand.

Cut #5  “New products like the new MKZ, the all new MKX which was launched not too long ago, and most recently the Lincoln Continental, which we sold 1,222 of them last month.  So these new products are really helping to boost Lincoln sales, which were up 7 percent over all and more importantly 10 percent at retail.” :23 sec.

Truck sales remained positive for Ford with F-Series retail sales up 2 percent on strong Super Duty demand.

Cut #6  “And the Super Duty right now is turning on dealer lots at just 18 days, so it’s in really strong demand, and we’re also seeing incredible demand for high series Super Duty’s, which would include things like Lariat, King Ranch and Platinum, the higher end,  the Super Duty trucks.” 19 sec.