U.S. consumers purchased 199,847 new vehicles from Ford , Lincoln , Mercury, Jaguar , Land Rover and Volvo dealers in October, down 26 percent compared with a year ago. Most models experienced sharp declines in October in the wake of this summer’s strong sales, Ford says. Both car and truck sales were lower than a year ago, but cars fared better than trucks. Sales of Ford’s new midsize sedans were a bright point, with the new Fusion (4,078), Mercury Milan (1,336), and Lincoln Zephyr (1,204) easily exceeded Ford’s expectations. “Many Ford dealers likened the consumer response to Fusion as on par with the reception of the Ford Mustang a year ago,” said Steve Lyons, Ford group vice president, North America Marketing, Sales and Service. The new Mustang continued to post higher sales (up 22 percent) and the Ford Five Hundred and Mercury Montego full-size sedans, which also were introduced last October, registered higher sales than a year ago. Land Rover dealers reported record October sales (up 40 percent) on the strength of its two new models – the LR3 and Range Rover Sport.
Ford sales were down 25.4 percent; Mercury sales were off 29.9 percent; Lincoln sales were down 30.6 percent; Jaguar sales were down 51.4 percent; Volvo sales were off 25.3 percent; and Land Rover sales posted the only gain — a massive 40.2 percent.
