Ford has announced that it has seen growth in it's market share in the US. The US manufacturer, who is currently the only US car manufacturer who has not filed for bankruptcy, released their sales figures in may which reached 155,954 sold vehicles. This figure is a 20% increase on April sales, however, it's a 24% decrease on sales from the same month last year.
The action of General Motors and Chrysler could have been the reason for the rise in Fords sales, both car manufacturers have filed for bankruptcy after seeing record low sales.
Just a day after they filed for bankruptcy, General Motors announced their May sales figures. They reported 191,875 vehicles sales last month which is a 30% drop on May 2008 sales, however, this is an 11% rise on last months sales. The likes of Hummer, Saab, Saturn and Pontiac, all of which GM are planning to sell on, proved to be the worst sellers of the month.
Chrysler announced 79,010 vehicle sales during May, which is a 47% drop in sales from the same month last year, they filed for bankruptcy on April 30th. They explained that a large number of their monthly sales came from 789 dealers that have cut Chrysler prices because they plan to stop selling their cars next week.
Ford is attempting to take advantage of the current situation by changing their vehicle production strategy. They plan on increasing their production to make an extra 52,000 vehicles over the next 2 quarters.
All car manufacturers have seen a decrease in public sales, but that is not the only reason for a decrease in overall sales. Corporate sales have also been on the decrease, companies that offer Ford leasing aswell as a number of other makes such as Peugeot leasing are buying less cars because they are being hit by the credit crunch. THe big problem is that when a customer wants to buy a car, they rarely think about leasing a car, which is normally the cheaper option.
