On The Moon, Ford Gets Spanked With Moon Rocks

Oh boy, things don't look good.

• Ford Motor Company's all-new and redesigned crossovers were up 40 percent in July; year-to-date sales also up 40 percent.
• Overall sales totaled 195,245, down 19 percent compared with a year ago; daily rental sales were down 57 percent and sales to individual retail customers were down 17 percent.
• Lincoln registers tenth month in a row of higher retail sales.
• All-new Ford Expedition gains for the eleventh month in a row; Lincoln Navigator was up 8 percent.
• Land Rover sales rose 19 percent, reflecting all-new LR2.

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So after a horrific June, Ford has followed up with a horrific July. At least the Edge is doing well. Up 40 percent over last year.... when they were just rolling off the assembly lines. I do give kudos to Ford for burying the 19 percent down in the second bullet. Bravo spinmasters!

Some more specific ass paddlings:

• The 'new' Taurus and leftover Five Hundred models COMBINED couldn't reach the sales of last years Five Hundred.
• The Fusion has taken a beating for 2 straight months now, almost erasing the sales gains it had made YTD, which are now at a meagre 3.9%.
• The Mustang continues to slide, despite what appears to be 326 different special editions out there- it is not about 12% down for the year.
• F-Series trucks are in deep doo doo.
• The engine enhancements to the MKZ haven't really amounted to much of a sales bump- only 5.5% YTD.
  

On the positive side:

• The Sable is actually doing pretty well.
• The Expedition is actually doing pretty damn well in the face of some serious competition.

Honestly, it's really hard to tell what the hell Ford has to do in order to get this ship righted. The all new Escape has barely had an impact. Good cars like the Fusion just aren't selling in the volumes they need to make a dent. The Taurus/Five Hundred fiasco- nuff said. The trucks are under heavy attack until the next gen F-Series can make a debut. Is something like the Flex really the answer? The company is in a rut, and frankly, I have no idea what they can do to get out of it. They need time more than anything, and they simply don't have it.