1st time ever: Toyota outsells Ford for a month - GreenHybrid

TKCamry · #1 (**permalink**) 08-02-2006, 12:48 PM

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/busine...tosales02.html

Quote:

For the first time last month, an American auto buyer was more likely to get behind the wheel of a new Toyota than that of a new Ford.

The company outsold Ford by more than 17,000 vehicles. Autodata Vice President David Lucas said it was the first time Toyota had sold more vehicles than Ford in a given month.

Toyota spokesman Mike Michels cautioned not to read very much into the numbers. "One month does not make any particular trend," he said.

At Ford, sales of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles fell 35.2 percent. Sales of F-Series pickup trucks, long the country's best-selling vehicle and the company's most important vehicle, shot down 45.6 percent.

Toyota's sales, meanwhile, soared 11.7 percent, with cars jumping 19.8 percent and trucks up 1.3 percent.

Gas prices are causing sales of big SUV's and trucks to drop off, an area where Ford was strongest. If Ford and GM don't start understanding gas prices aren't coming down, probably ever, and start making PROFITABLE cars instead of trucks, then their slide will continue.

Orcrone · #2 (**permalink**) 08-02-2006, 01:22 PM

As much as Ford's numbers are bad you have to remember that last summer Ford (along with GM and Chrysler) were offering "employee pricing", artificially inflating their sales. So it's not surprising that car sales are way down.

medicmike · #3 (**permalink**) 08-02-2006, 02:18 PM

Build a vehicle people want, at a good price, and they will buy it. Neither Ford nor GM has been able to understand this for decades. Let their slide continue...

torresinc · #4 (**permalink**) 08-04-2006, 08:54 AM

Quote:

By Chang-Ran Kim, Asia auto correspondent Fri Aug 4, 5:25 AM ET

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp., the world's most profitable car maker, booked a 27 percent jump in quarterly operating profit on Friday as sales charged ahead in North America and Europe, and said it aimed to beat its official forecasts for the full year.

Toyota (7203.T), whose market value of $188 billion is nearly treble the combined worth of Detroit's Big Three auto makers, is relentlessly attracting customers around the world with its fuel-efficient cars, and should soon overtake General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM - news) as the world's biggest car maker by sales volume.