Ford May U.S. sales drop 16%

[doh]

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/stor...D&siteid=yhoof

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Ford Motor Co. on Tuesday was the first of the major auto makers to deliver still more evidence of just how brutal it has become to sell big trucks and SUVs in the face of record-high gas prices and a slumping U.S. housing market.
The maker of the struggling Blue Oval brand posted a 16% drop in May U.S. vehicle sales to 217,998 cars and trucks, down from 259,470 a year earlier.

But it wasn't the car side to blame. Strong demand for the Focus and Fusion helped push car sales up 2.8% to 91,634 vehicles.
Trucks, as expected, were the culprit.
The fuel-thirsty lineup shed 25.8% from a year ago to 126,364 vehicles. The SUV segment plunged 44% and vans dropped 29%. The F-Series pickup, the long-time best-selling vehicle in the U.S., saw its sales fall 30.6% to 42,973 trucks.
Jim Farley, head of Ford marketing and communication, described the move toward smaller cars as potentially "the most dramatic shift in customer segmentation" in three decades.
"May was a watershed month," he said in a conference call. "We are, as an industry, catching up with the breathtaking choices that customers are now making."
Ford confirmed the production plans it announced on May 22, which includes 690,000 vehicles in the second quarter, and 525,000 units in the third. The fourth-quarter range is between 590,000 and 630,000 vehicles.

[rozz]

Originally Posted by doh

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/stor...D&siteid=yhoof

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Ford Motor Co. on Tuesday was the first of the major auto makers to deliver still more evidence of just how brutal it has become to sell big trucks and SUVs in the face of record-high gas prices and a slumping U.S. housing market.
The maker of the struggling Blue Oval brand posted a 16% drop in May U.S. vehicle sales to 217,998 cars and trucks, down from 259,470 a year earlier.

But it wasn't the car side to blame. Strong demand for the Focus and Fusion helped push car sales up 2.8% to 91,634 vehicles.
Trucks, as expected, were the culprit.
The fuel-thirsty lineup shed 25.8% from a year ago to 126,364 vehicles. The SUV segment plunged 44% and vans dropped 29%. The F-Series pickup, the long-time best-selling vehicle in the U.S., saw its sales fall 30.6% to 42,973 trucks.
Jim Farley, head of Ford marketing and communication, described the move toward smaller cars as potentially "the most dramatic shift in customer segmentation" in three decades.
"May was a watershed month," he said in a conference call. "We are, as an industry, catching up with the breathtaking choices that customers are now making."
Ford confirmed the production plans it announced on May 22, which includes 690,000 vehicles in the second quarter, and 525,000 units in the third. The fourth-quarter range is between 590,000 and 630,000 vehicles.

Why I am not surprise.