Over at Ford's U.S.-only Mercury brand, the Grand Marquis is
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| While the Fusion is a hot item, we bet you didn't think that the Five Hundred and its rebadged sister, the Mercury Montego were selling well. (Photo: Ford Motor Company of Canada) |
also experiencing a bit of a renaissance with a sales climb of 32.7 percent to 7,204 units, while its new midsize Milan created 3,557 new sales for the upscale Ford Motor division, for a total of 11,187 sold since it became available last year. Compared to the 2,753 Sables sold in April of last year, a car that is now discontinued, things at Mercury are on the upswing. The brand's full-size Montego, a badge-engineered Ford Five Hundred, is also seeing stronger sales, with 2,760 sold; representing a 27 percent increase. The car definitely won't be replacing the Grand Marquis anytime soon, but being that most Montego sales are retail and not fleet, this should be seen as a positive trend. So far, Ford Motor Company of Canada
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| Ford needs the new Edge, and it's coming soon. (Photo: Ford Motor Company of Canada) |
isn't commenting on whether the Mercury brand will once again be sold north of the 49th, despite vehicles such as the Mariner compact crossover-SUV, Monterey minivan and Milan midsize sedan being ideal for our market.
In the ever growing crossover-SUV market the Ford brand is still strong in both markets, its compact Escape still number one in its category in Canada. The model also represents some of Ford's healthiest U.S. sales with 16,011 Escape sales in April, stronger than last year by 6.2 percent, although only moderate sales of its midsize Freestyle, at 6,491 units sold, showing a drop of 2.7 over April 2005. The recently redesigned Explorer is also off with only 13,772 sales in April, some 42.1 percent lower than April of last year, which shows a trend away from traditional SUVs towards car-based crossovers. No doubt, Ford's upcoming Edge, which targets the midsize CUV buyer currently buying imports such as Nissan's Murano and Toyota's Highlander, among others, will help keep Ford loyalists in the family.
The
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| Ford has yet to abandon its full-size SUV post completely. (Photo: Ford Motor Company of Canada) |
environmentalist lobby will be thrilled that one of the world's largest SUVs is showing sales down by 100 percent, due of course to the Excursion being discontinued after the 2005 model, but Expedition sales are also weakened by 33.4 percent over April of last year, at 6,305 units delivered. A new 2007 Expedition should help right this wrong, although it may prove only to slow down the full-size SUV segment's overall size reduction, as the introduction of all-new 2006 Explorer last year hasn't proven to be remedy enough to boost sales of this model.
The vehicle that continually bolster's Ford's bottom line but simultaneously hurts its CAFE fuel economy ratings is the world's best selling Ford F-Series (F-150/F-250/F-350), with sales that are also down in April, from 71,367 sold during the same month in 2005 to 64,749 units now, off some 9.3 percent. The F-Series' slide shouldn't be seen as the beginning of a trend, mind you, as the truck normally averages close to a million units per year, fluctuating from month to month. A positive blip among blue oval trucks is a 4.8 percent rise in heavy duty models, to 1,341 units.
Of course, Ford Motor Company owns more than just its namesake
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| Lincoln MKX aims to deliver what modern SUV buyers want. (Photo: Ford Motor Company of Canada) |
brand, with Lincoln experiencing much higher retail sales thanks to the new Zephyr, soon to be renamed MKZ when it receives a more powerful 3.5L V6 as a 2007 model. The Zephyr has augmented a slower selling LS sedan with 3,378 new sales in April, and 11,162 since its inception last fall. A new MKX crossover, which shares the MKZ's 3.5L V6 and a common architecture with the Ford Edge crossover, should also add new buyers to the Lincoln family.
On the negative both Aviator and Navigator sales are down substantially, but the new MK LT pickup has improved by 48.6 percent, to 1,021 units. Still, as good as this growth in an all-new segment is for Lincoln, it can't make up for 598 fewer Navigator sales and 1,360 fewer Aviator sales; the latter off some 89.7 percent from April of 2005. Yes, the MKX crossover couldn't arrive any sooner. A bit of positive news is that sales of the aging Town Car are up 1.7 percent to 3,693 units.
