Ford sales declined at a higher rate than the industry average. It was the first year that Ford explicitly operated as an automaker primarily concerned with crossover, utility, and truck sales. Given the number of nameplates Ford axed within the last two years, it was inevitable that their demise would affect the sales charts. Oddly enough, the retired cars weren’t really the issue. It was the crossovers. Otherwise, Ford made out okay.
And Lincoln might be on the cusp of substantial growth.
The end times have arrived for Ford’s passenger cars. The C-Max, Focus, and Taurus are clearing out as dealers sell whatever they have left. You’d think the Fiesta would have fared poorly too, but that actually didn’t happen. Even without any new Fiestas being produced after the middle of last year, Ford managed to move 60,148 of them. The Versa was the only subcompact to outsell it, at about 66,000 units. Ford’s zombie subcompact managed to place second in the segment.
The Fusion, which is kinda-sorta cancelled, still managed to retain fourth place in the mid-size segment with 166,045 sold. Ford discounted the Fusion heavily towards the end of 2019. In early December, the company was offering up to $6,500 off the Fusion, depending on location. But not for the Hybrid or Energi models. Those only had about $1,000-$2,000 in incentives. Did the hybrids provide a stay of execution for the Fusion? Maybe.
Ford’s trucks fared pretty well given the circumstances. Despite their relative age, the F-Series only suffered a 1.4% drop in sales, selling 896,526 last year. Given the freshness of the Ram 1500 and Silverado 1500, that’s a respectable figure, especially considering the former’s extremely positive critical reception. The Ranger found 89,571 buyers last year. A number that placed it third or fourth in the mid-size truck segment, depending on how you group the GM twins.
Vans are another source of strength for the Blue Oval. The full-size Transit was up 11.7% for a grand total of 153,868 units sold. Not to be outdone, the Transit Connect moved 41,598 last year, which represented a 30.3% increase. Both models received refreshes for 2020, and the Transit now has optional all-wheel drive. They remain the top sellers of their respective segments.
The redesigned Escape and Explorer were the real problems for Ford. There have been no reported issues with the 2020 Escape, but any substantial changeover impacts supply. That likely explains why sales dropped 11.3% to 241,388. The Explorer had a much more dramatic 2019, as we’ve reported before. Those teething issues contributed to a 26.1% decrease in sales, which means Ford sold 168,309 of the old and new models last year.
On a more positive note, Edge sales increased 3.3% to 138,515. The mid-size crossover segment received two more members in 2019, which makes the Edge’s performance noteworthy. Ford’s tiny EcoSport managed to increase sales too. The stubby subcompact found 64,708 last year, a 19.1% bump from 2018. Finally, the Flex resonated with 24,484 shoppers, an astounding 20.6% increase from last year. Buyers in the market for a Flex probably knew about its demise and decided to snatch up the last remaining examples. But that’s just a hunch.
Ford’s biggest success was the Expedition. Sales are up 58.1%. At 86,422 Expeditions sold, it still doesn’t come close to matching the Tahoe/Suburban, but it’s something. And these probably make a lot of money for the company, so if Ford is upset at losing to Chevy, they can cry all the way to the bank, where their tears will probably dry up pretty quickly.
Lincoln enters the new decade in solid shape. Don’t expect a new generation of Lincoln sedans though: The Continental and MKZ only managed to sell a combined 24,311 units for 2019, a 15% drop from 2018. By contrast, Lincoln’s utility lineup performed far better. The Nautilus (aka refreshed MKX) found 31,711 buyers, which represented an 11% increase compared to the prior year. Lincoln’s Corsair was lumped in with the MKC. An understandable decision since it effectively replaces the older model. To that end, both nameplates contributed a total of 25,815 sales for Lincoln. That’s a 1.6% drop from 2018, but the Corsair is a new model, so supply was probably tight.
Lincoln’s three-row lineup did pretty well too. The MKT sold about 45% more in its last year. Navigator sales rose 4.6% to 18,656. And the Aviator just started trickling into dealerships, with 8,323 finding homes. The entire brand was up 8.3% last year. Lincoln remains a small player in the luxury segment, but it looks like there’s room to grow.
I wonder how much of the Lincoln crossover increase had to do with replacing MKwhatever with actual names. After all, with names it’s easier to correlate exactly which and what size model you’re considering.
MKZ was the only three-letter tag that made sense to me, because I still remember the car starting out as Zephyr.
I like this theory. It’s true that the Lincolns are really handsome in recent years, which helps, obviously, and that they have good interiors. But, I am sure that I am not the only one who could never sort out which Lincoln was which. I have the same problem with Acuras – I was out with some friends yesterday and it came in passing up that two of them have Acura SUVs. One was an R-something and I think the other one was a T-something. But which one was the nice one? I have no idea.
But if you say, “Aviator” I have a clear image in my mind of a very handsome SUV.
Interesting. Percentages tend to be a bit confusing especially in regard to comparing smaller volume changes as compared to larger ones.
For example the F-series “only” dropped 1.4% which is around 13,000 or so vehicles. But Lincoln climbed 8.3% which sounds great until one realizes it amounts to less than 9,000 vehicles.
BTW the article states the F150 sold 896,526 examples last year. I think that’s the entire F-series line (250,350,450 etc) not just the 150.
Do you happen to have the sales totals that would include anything that represents Ford’s future-ish persona, i.e. ONLY truck/SUV and excluding everything that is known to be cancelled? It’d be interesting to establish a baseline especially as you noted some of the numbers may have been “juiced” by demand for cancelled models.
Ah, yeah. Keep forgetting that the F-Series includes the F-250 and such. Fixed.
Here’s where I got the sales info:
https://media.ford.com/content/dam/fordmedia/North%20America/US/2020/01/06/sales-4q2019.pdf
Basically, car sales are down 30 percent, SUV sales are down 7 percent, and truck/van sales are are up 9 percent. But that 7 percent is basically due to the model changeovers.
Hey, thanks for the quick response! So about 2,073,000 of whatever isn’t called a “car”, actually a slight increase over 2018. That’ll be handy going forward, there’ll likely always be changeovers most years of one model or another or if anything this should be a low number.
And there will also be the addition of new models like the Bronco, “baby” Bronco, and Focus-based pickup truck, in addition to the resurrected Fusion.
The F-series numbers only include 150,250,350 and 450 pickups, 450 cab and chassis, 550 and above are reported as “heavy trucks” in their sales numbers.
Congratulations on becoming a new father!
Now, before you can take your new baby home, you will need to show our law enforcement officer that you have the latest car seat designed for infants and demonstrate that you have installed it correctly, and can remove your baby from it as it sits in a baby carrier that snaps into the base. You will need a vehicle large enough to carry the car seat, a snap-n-go, a folding playpen, diaper bag, food bad, cooler and still have room enough for the rest of your children as well. All of your children will need to have these adult sized car seats until they reach the age of 8 or 80 pounds. How many children under the age of 8 do you have? Five? Well, let’s just say that your vehicle needs to be a large one, OK?
Congratulations on having twins!
Double what we just said.
You said you want to take Grandma and Grandpa out on trips with your family? You’ll need something pretty large.
You wonder why vehicles are becoming larger? Why big is back? Families need more space than ever. Minivans are about as small as you can get if you only have two kids. If you are blessed with more, you’ll need a full size vehicle of some sort or another. Promise – you’ll probably not have room for Grandma, she’ll meet you guys at Bob Evans driving her own vehicle.
Interestingly, empty nesters seem to want a big vehicle as well. Perhaps it is because they sit high enough to allow a driver to easily bend into position behind the wheel. Perhaps it is to help them in some other physical way.
But big is back after a generation of nannies telling us that our rides are killing baby harp seals and melting ice caps 12,000 miles from here. Much as I love a sporty coupe, my chances of driving a Mustang today is as realistic as imagining getting the bathroom to myself. Not going to happen anytime in the next decade.
Growing up, all of us would pile in a VW Beetle, at times, my sister and I both sat behind the rear seat in that little padded pit about the size of a clothes basket. Back then, Beetles could seat six or seven, depending on the size of the kids. Officer McNanny wasn’t around to scold us or ticket us further into poverty.
This is why Ford and GM are dumping cars. It is a sad thing. Fortunately, our big cars get better mileage than that old Beetle, or Plymouth Valiant. Amazingly, even our trucks weigh less than that old Buick or New Yorker.
But I will miss cars.
Congratulations Ford for surviving a tough year and saving Lincoln!
You’ve vividly put your finger on the #1 reason cars turned into truck-sized beasts: car seats and the laws requiring their use. The seats are big, the laws are practically everywhere. The car has to be big enough to hold a bunch of them, and tall enough so you can get a squirmy kid in there and do up the buckles. Plus an SUV-sized stroller, sometimes double wide.
So now we have these crossover blobs, which I just think of as 21st century cars. There will still be a market for low, trim, efficient and fast cars for adults, just not the millions per year they used to sell.
Many precious lives have surely been saved. And CC is here to keep the spirit of real cars alive.
I rode around in that little compartment behind the rear seat in a Beetle, or maybe it was a ’60 Corvair, or maybe some of both. There was a soft covering cut to size to fit the floor. I thought of it as a sleeping compartment, and became irked when by the time I was 7 cars didn’t seem to have these little beds in them anymore.
I’m fine though with child seats and the laws requiring them. It’s easy to be critical of these “nannies” when *you’re* not the one who was killed or maimed as a kid because you were riding cross-legged in the way-back of a station wagon (as 8-year-old me rode around in), or the 5th, 6th, or 7th kid in your Beetle (who were clearly unbelted) rather than strapped into a carefully constructed safety seat built for that purpose. Statistics show a vast decline in child injuries and fatalities over the last few decades, although there’s been an unfortunate uptick in recent years likely due to distracting gadgets, fussy touchscreens, and/or reduced outward visibility.
There are lots of people like you who’d like to drive a Mustang coupe but can’t because it’s too impractical. Hence, Mustang crossovers which I think were a smart move by Ford.
I’m so glad I grew up in the 90s just before all of this, I’d probably have nothing but resentment for cars if I had to sit in a child seat until 8 years old.
My mom was actually a careful and responsible driver, she didn’t need Mommy lobbies or her Jetta to do the parenting for her
Not much to say here that hasn’t been said above, but a little personalized perspective:
Yesterday in traffic in the backseat of an Uber, I glanced over and spotted a Lincoln Corsair. Nice looking vehicle, driven by the typical Tampa Bay Area well-heeled snowbird type. I immediately concluded that I’d likely be seeing a lot more of those, probably driven by very similar folk. And I’ll know what it is. Because it’s a Corsair. Not a MKXTFQ. And yes, I think they will sell more than they would have sold with the alpha-nonsense names. Because if my Gen X brain can be imprinted with “Corsair, nice car by Lincoln”, and I’m neither in the market for nor interested in a vehicle of this type, well… (I consider myself to be of at least average intelligence and a fairly “typical” American consumer. YMMV)
Off Topic; but pertaining to this site:
Is there any way to block those dayumed “pop up ads” that suddenly appear and cover 1/3 to 1/2 of the bottom of any article/reply window here?
Or is it just my web browser doing this??
I think this site mentioned not too long ago that they had to institute a new ad policy in order to keep the lights on. Annoying yes, but better than no curbside.
I toyed with buying a new Fiesta this year when a manual, sunroof hatchback (in Crest toothpaste green!) turned up on the local Ford lot but someone else bought it before the dealer-advertised price dropped enough to reflect its’ “zombie model, ‘Built Ford Proud’ doesn’t apply to this vehicle, we’re only building ’em ’till the contracts run out” status. Took a couple months at that.
Most of the other new Fiestas I’ve seen since The Announcement came off the carrier onto the Hertz lot across the street.
Overall Ford did good this year, not only did the delays of getting Explorers out the door cut into their sales, the fact that they stopped producing the 2019s about half way through the traditional production year meant at least in my area that the dealers just didn’t have Explorers to sell for a significant period of time. 2019s are long gone in my area.
The missing 100k Focus sales is greater than their year to year drop of 80k.
It is also interesting that there were that big of deals on the Fusion, that was not the case in my area and I’m on the coast where supposedly they don’t sell w/o big discounts. Right now on the 2020s the cash incentive is only $250 except for the Titanium Energi that gets $1500. The lease deals and financing are not great either.
I did hear that they may even produce 2021 Fusions. It is not that they didn’t make money on the Fusion, it is that they didn’t think there would be enough future sales to make the investment to replace have a high enough return.
Ford recently said they’re continuing the Fusion through at least half of 2021. My guess is they’re primarily keeping the plant running until the new products arrive, which are all based on the current gen Focus platform. I believe the Hermosillo plant will produce the Fusion wagon, next gen Transit Connect, and whatever Ford decides to call the Focus-based pickup. Those three models should at least equal the volume the Fusion currently puts out. They’ll probably be more profitable too.
From what I’ve read on the interwebs, Ford stopped Fusion production last October and was retooling plant to produce a Transit Connect. I’ve no idea if it’s the case or if they’re continuing production.
I believe that Continental will be produced up to 2021, not Fusion.
Whenever I see the front of that Lincoln, I see Butthead.
I can’t be the only one.
You know I wondered why I never liked the front end for so long. Thanks for giving me a mental image that will forever be stuck in my brain.
“Uh…h-huh…Cool! H-huh…”
Due to marketing trends, it apears that the Continental is on borrowed time. Times change. You have to change with them. Maybe a top of the line Navigator Continental with suicide back doors would be a way forward for a once glorious name.