Turn the clocks back to early 2008 and a 20 percent drop in new car sales would be enough to get most CEOs fired. Fast forward to today and a 20 percent sales drop is something to celebrate. Although not quite jumping up and down with excitement just yet, Ford is much closer to the latter scenario as it expects to post a June sales decline of between 10 and 20 percent.
June sales have yet to go official but Ford is expecting a decline of just 10-20 percent. Although still far from the black, Ford is encouraged by the market improvement. “The underlying economic indicators, meaning fewer jobless claims, another month of somewhat higher levels of consumer confidence, suggest to us that the worst is behind us in terms of not only the economy… but also that we may have seen the low point of auto sales,” George Pipas, Ford’s U.S. sales analyst, told Automotive News.
Ford has posted a sales decline of at least 20 percent in every month since July 2008.
Ford expects the overall U.S. new car market to be down between 25 percent and 30 percent for the month of June. That compares favorably to the near-40percent drop of the first five months of the year and would actually be the smallest market decline since September 2008, according to Automotive News.
In anticipation of a slight market recover, Ford will increase production during the third quarter.
