Wednesday January 3, 1:27 pm ET
Ford Auto Sales Slide in December on Weaker Demand for Ford, Jaguar and Volvo Models
DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — The hemorrhage at Ford Motor Co. continued in December, as auto sales declined sharply due to weaker demand for Ford, Jaguar and Volvo brand vehicles.
Excluding sales of heavy trucks, Ford sold 231,900 vehicles in December — down 12.9 percent from 266,381 a year ago.
Sales of Ford brand vehicles dropped 14.5 percent to 190,914 units. Jaguar and Volvo sales fell 36.5 percent and 6.2 percent, respectively. Sales of Mercury and Lincoln vehicles rose slightly during the month.
Jaguar sales account for only a sliver of Ford's total — just 1,553 were sold in December — but the brand saw steep declines in sales of all but one of its models, the new XK sports car.
Separately, Volvo reported it sold 8,525 vehicles during the month, as demand waned for its V50 and V70 wagons, and S60 sedans.
Accounting for one additional selling day in the year-ago period, total sales slipped 9.6 percent in December.
The company estimates inventories of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles stood at 590,000 units at December's end — a decline of 143,000 units compared with the prior year.
In 2006, Ford sold 2,904,223 vehicles, excluding heavy trucks. That represents a 7.9 percent decline from 2005 sales of 3,154,308 autos. Accounting for an extra selling day in 2005, full-year vehicle sales fell 7.6 percent.
Ford shares added 9 cents at $7.60 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
