Ford Sales Expected to Suffer in April

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 12, 12:20AM EST · Published Apr 28, 8:20AM EDT

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

The U.S, car industry as a whole is expected to have a unit sales decline in April compared to the same month last year. No large car manufacturer is expected to post results as poor as Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F). The numbers indicate why Ford is expected to exit the car market altogether in favor of trucks and sport utility vehicles.

According to Cox Automotive, overall sales are expected to drop 3.6% to 1,370,000. Ford’s are forecast to fall 7.2% for the same period to 198,000. That means Ford will barely hang on to the number two spot behind leader General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM), the sales of which are expected to rise 0.2% for the same period to 245,000. Moving up on Ford, Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) sales are expected to be 194,000, down 3.9% month compared to the same month last year.

Commenting on Ford’s decision, Michelle Krebs, an executive analyst at Autotrader, said:

Ford’s announcement yesterday that it plans to wind down sales of its core cars lines – Fiesta, Focus, Fusion and Taurus – is a bold and risky move. It’s an indication tough decisions are being made.

It is, nevertheless, a bold move by a desperate company.

[nativounit]
Other top manufacturers are also expected to have a rough month. However, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (NYSE: FCAU) is not among them. Its sales are expected to fall only 0.7% to 175,000. Kelley Blue Book Executive Analyst Rebecca Lindland said:

I expect another strong month from the Jeep brand. The new products are driving strong sales and, considering FCA’s recent Q1 results, powering the bottom line as well. Of late, Jeep seems to be holding up the entire FCA tent.

Honda Motor Co. Ltd. (NYSE: HMC) sales are expected to drop 6.1% to 130,000. Nissan’s are expected to be down 6.6% to 114,000.

If there is any broad lesson from the April forecast, it is that the U.S. auto market has reached a top and is sliding back down.

[recirclink id=457252]
[wallst_email_signup]

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.