DEARBORN, Mich., Nov. 1, 2017 -- Ford sales increased 6.2 percent last month, with 200,436 vehicles sold.  According to Eric Merkle, Ford Sales analyst, retail performance was up 3.5 percent versus a year ago, with trucks and SUVs leading the way.

Cut #1 “We’ve had the all-new Super Duty out in the market place, the public has been responding really well to it, and now we’re coming out with the new 2018 F-150.  So it’s those two combined that have really helped to lift  F-Series to the 16 percent gain that we realized in October.”  :18 sec.
 

Merkle says consumers continue to move out of cars and into trucks and SUV’s.

Cut #2 “ October really wasn’t any different  in that sense, the fact that Ford brand SUVs were 4.6 percent  and we were really led by strong gains from Edge which was up 37 percent and Explorer was up 5 percent, but at retail it was up even more,  just over 13 percent for the month.” :14 sec.
 

Merkle indicated that the Hurricane season was responsible for some sales increases spilling over from September and into October.

Cut #3 “But what happened is, is in Texas we saw a really big surge in the second half of September, they did moderate a bit more in September, but they were still operating what we would consider to be above long term trend for the region.  In Florida, Florida continued to do very well, it really started to come back from the hurricane towards the end of September and that really carried over through into October.” :24 sec.

Lincoln SUV sales gained 13.1 percent as consumers continue to want more bling for their buck.

Cut #4 “What’s going on in the luxury segment, isn’t really any different than what’s going on in the overall industry.  Luxury SUV sales continue to do very well so Lincoln SUVs were up 13.1 percent and we had gains coming from MKC, MKX and Navigator.” :15 sec.