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SOUNDBITES: AUGUST 2009 SALES
A combination of Ford Motor Company's strong line up and the governments Cash for Clunkers program, drove retail sales up 21 percent for the month of August. George Pipas, Ford Sales Analyst says Ford's total sales including fleet customer deliveries were up 17-percent compared to last year.
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| Cut #1: |
"This months increase is 17% in total 21% at the retail level, our strong lineup allowed us to out perform in this program, but without this strong line up we would not have done nearly so well." :16 sec. |
| Pipas does expect to see a sales decline in the first few weeks of September now that the Cash for Clunkers program is over. He says the sales rate in August hovered around 15-million and that sales rate cannot be expected to continue when you take into consideration the fragile economic environment and unemployment rate. | |
| Cut #2: |
"I would suspect that in September we're going to see a noticeable decline in sales particularly in the first week or two or possibly even into the third week before inventories can start to be replenished." : 10 sec. |
| Ford now has gained retail market share in 10 of the last 11 months… Pipas points to product and a glimmer of hope in the economic sales recovery. | |
| Cut #3: |
"If we look at products like F-Series, Ranger and the new Transit Connect, these are vehicles used by small business's for commercial purposes, and the fact that all three of those products did well, F-Series posted its first sales increase year on year since Oct 2006, almost three years ago, I think this is an indication and we have survey results as well, that seem to cooberate that small business owners are feeling more optimistic about the prospects of an economic recovery in the next six to 12 months." 41 sec. |
| Sales of the Ford Ranger, the most-fuel-efficient pickup in America- were up 57 percent, sales for each truck were the highest in more than a year and it's these sales figures Pipis sees as the barometer providing a "balanced" scale of Ford products in the future. | |
| Cut #4: |
"I think you get the picture that Ford's performance wasn't just concentrated at the small end of the line up it was a very balanced performance and I think that's what's going to differentiate Ford this year, we not only did well with Focus, Escape and Fusion, but we did well at the top of the line-up as well." :19 sec. |
| Also gaining momentum is Ford's new EcoBoost engine, with dealer orders for EcoBoost equipped models exceeding company expectations. |