Ford sold a total of 232,982 vehicles in December. Sales of the company's North American-built light vehicles fell 13 percent to 216,028, a larger decline than the 9.1 percent forecast by analysts. The company said both fleet and retail sales declined.
Sales dropped 17 percent for cars and 6.3 percent for trucks, the company said in a statement.
Explorer sales rise
Sales of F-Series trucks, the company's largest US seller, fell 6.2 percent to 55,370. Sales of the Explorer, the best-selling sport-utility, rose 16 percent to 28,023.
Sales of the Escape small sport-utility fell 16 percent to 9,104. The Escape has the lowest inventories among Ford vehicles, company sales analyst George Pipas said. Escape also did not have special financing or other incentives on it.
Sales of Taurus, Ford's top-selling car, fell 18 percent to 18,414 while the Focus small car declined 19 percent to 13,621.
Sales of Jaguar luxury cars rose 88 percent to 4,709 on the strength of new models including the X-Type sedans, which wasn't available a year ago.
Auburn Hills, Michigan-based Chrysler's total sales of 146,399 were hurt by lower demand for its sport-utility vehicles. Car sales declined about 8 percent and light-truck sales slipped 9 percent.
The Chrysler PT Cruiser, usually a strong seller, fell 36 percent to 8,642. The Dodge Durango sport-utility declined 24 percent to 7,300 and Jeep Grand Cherokees slipped 17 percent to 13,540. Chrysler this week added US$2,500 incentives to the Durango and Grand Cherokee and still offers no incentives on PT Cruisers. The truck decline was moderated by a 3 percent increase in the new Dodge Ram pickup and an 8 percent increase in Dodge Caravan minivan sales compared to the last January.
Overseas-based automakers are likely to gain market share this month as sales of several brands rose.
Nissan Motor Co, Japan's third-biggest automaker, said sales climbed 8 percent to 54,534 vehicles because of a 28 percent rise in demand for Altima sedans.
Volkswagen AG, the largest European automaker, said January sales increased 6 percent to 21,362. The Wolfsburg, Germany-based company was helped by a 63 percent rise in demand for Passats.
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG's sales rose 16 percent to 15,923 helped by increased X5 sport-utility vehicle sales.
Mitsubishi Motors Corp sales rose 20 percent to 26,069 cars and light trucks led by a 28 rise in Galant sedans. Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd's Subaru unit said US sales climbed 2 percent to 13,092 as sales of Legacy and Outback wagons and sedans rose.
RSS