Last Month Marked the Strongest Start for F-Series Sales Since 2004
Ford recently announced its U.S. sales figures for the month of January. Taking total fleet and retail sales into account, the automaker was down one percent. There’s a lot of black in that red, though.
Fleet sales were to blame for that decline; rental, commercial, and government customers bought only 52,212 vehicles — a dip of 13 percent. On the plus side, conventional buyers drove off with 120,400 vehicles in January, bringing retail sales up by six percent in January.
Regardless of how they were going to use them, a good deal of people signed the dotted line for F-Series trucks. Nearly 58,000 of them. Either way you look at that, it’s a positive for the Blue Oval. Those of you out there who bought a new F-150 or Super Duty for your personal use are partly to thank for boosting retail F-Series sales by a whopping 19 percent. Fleet F-Series buyers contributed to the line’s general (fleet/retail) 13 percent sales increase and a January that Ford calls the “best sales start for F-Series since 2004.”
Did you purchase a new Ford Explorer or Expedition or Edge last month? Then you helped give Ford’s sport utility division an overall sales increase of six percent (retail sales were up by almost twice as much). That translates to the best “overall start for Ford SUVs” — ever.
Even Lincoln, which sold 8,785 vehicles in January, was off to its best start in a decade.
Mark LaNeve, Ford’s VP of U.S. Marketing, said, “The new year brought strong consumer demand for F-Series, Lincoln and record SUV sales, especially high-end models. This drove near-record company average transaction prices for Ford, up $2,500 versus a year ago and far outpacing the overall January industry increase of $550.”
There’s no changing the number 1 on a spreadsheet, but news like that must make it feel more like a 0.
Derek Shiekhi's father raised him on cars. As a boy, Derek accompanied his dad as he bought classics such as post-WWII GM trucks and early Ford Mustang convertibles.
After loving cars for years and getting a bachelor's degree in Business Management, Derek decided to get an associate degree in journalism. His networking put him in contact with the editor of the Austin-American Statesman newspaper, who hired him to write freelance about automotive culture and events in Austin, Texas in 2013. One particular story led to him getting a certificate for learning the foundations of road racing.
While watching TV with his parents one fateful evening, he saw a commercial that changed his life. In it, Jeep touted the Wrangler as the Texas Auto Writers Association's "SUV of Texas." Derek knew he had to join the organization if he was going to advance as an automotive writer. He joined the Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) in 2014 and was fortunate to meet several nice people who connected him to the representatives of several automakers and the people who could give him access to press vehicles (the first one he ever got the keys to was a Lexus LX 570). He's now a regular at TAWA's two main events: the Texas Auto Roundup in the spring and the Texas Truck Rodeo in the fall.
Over the past several years, Derek has learned how to drive off-road in various four-wheel-drive SUVs (he even camped out for two nights in a Land Rover), and driven around various tracks in hot hatches, muscle cars, and exotics. Several of his pieces, including his article about the 2015 Ford F-150 being crowned TAWA's 2014 "Truck of Texas" and his review of the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, have won awards in TAWA's annual Excellence in Craft Competition. Last year, his JK Forum profile of Wagonmaster, a business that restores Jeep Wagoneers, won prizes in TAWA’s signature writing contest and its pickup- and SUV-focused Texas Truck Invitational.
