Ford Americas chief says 1Q revenue, demand up

Posted 16m ago

DETROIT (AP) — Ford Motor's revenue rose in the first quarter thanks to strong U.S. demand for cars and trucks, Ford's Americas President Mark Fields said Tuesday.

Fields didn't provide revenue numbers, which are expected to be released later this month. But it is more good news for the automaker, which is expected to report its fourth consecutive quarterly profit in the first quarter. Ford has benefited from Toyota's recall woes as well as consumer goodwill because it didn't take federal bailout money, as General Motors and Chrysler did.

Ford's U.S. sales jumped 37% in the first three months of this year. Only Subaru and Volkswagen had higher gains. Ford's year-over-year U.S. market share gain for the quarter, at 2.7 percentage points, is the largest gain since 1977, when results were skewed by a strike.

The automaker saw market share increases across its Ford brand, according to George Pipas, Ford's top U.S. sales analyst. The F-Series truck now holds 38.5% of the U.S. market, up from 33.2% in the first quarter last year. Sales of the Ford Fusion midsize sedan jumped 81% in the quarter.

Ford's Mercury and Lincoln brands held on to their market share, but didn't see big increases. Pipas said that was partly the result of Ford's decision to put most of its marketing resources behind the Ford brand during the economic downturn.

"If we were going to fix the business, we had to fix the Ford brand, because that's where we had the best chance of getting a return," he said. "Now it's up to us to make progress, now that we're not thinking about where our next meal is going to come from."

http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/201 ... rter_N.htm