DEARBORN, Mich., Dec. 1, 2016 – Ford Motor Company’s overall sales totaled 197,574 vehicles in November – a 5 percent increase versus last year – driven by a 10 percent retail sales gain with 154,114 vehicles sold. Here to explain is Eric Merkle, Ford Sales Analyst.

Cut #1 ”Ford had a really strong month in the month of November, overall we were up 5 percent, but really the area we want to focus on and kind of highlight here is that the fact is that we were up 10 percent.  And that was really driven by strong F-Series sales,  SUV’s, and also Lincoln drove a lot of those gains.” 19 sec.

Ford Brand SUV’s saw a 20 percent increase in the month of November over a year ago.

Cut #2 “We saw increases across our entire portfolio, so every SUV in our portfolio produced an increase, but the most notable ones and some of our biggest sellers, were Escape was up 11 percent, Explorer was up 14, Edge posted a 32 percent increase and the Expedition a 75 percent gain.” :21 sec.

Fleet sales including daily rental, commercial and government segments declined 9 percent.

Cut #3 “And that really is in line with what we’ve been saying through the second half of the year, is that our Fleet sales which include daily rental, commercial and government segments they declined 9 percent and that really reflects the company’s plan to front-end-load fleet sales at the beginning of the year which makes them a little softer here in the second half.” :23 sec.

Sales of Ford F-Series had its best November in 15 years, according to Merkle.

Cut #4”We had a really strong retail performance for F-150, and really strong on Super-Duty, which gave F-Series an overall sales number for the month of  72,089 pickups. That was an 11 percent increase and it was our best November since 2001, so you’re looking at 15 years, that was the last time we had a November F-Series above the 70-thousand mark.” :27 sec.

On the luxury front, Lincoln realized a sales increase of 19 percent  in November.

Cut #5 “We saw retail sales for Lincoln,  the retail portion of it up 20 percent and it’s really being driven by our newest products.  So when we look at the new MKZ, new MKZ was up 9 percent in November, the MKX our mid-size crossover SUV for Lincoln was up 30 percent and the all-new Continental with 1,419 vehicles sold, that was our best sales month for Continental since its introduction, a few months back.” :29 sec.