Chrysler Group, which is controlled by Italy’s Fiat SpA, was first out of the blocks, reporting sales of 139,015 units, up 4% compared with February 2012 and up from 117, 731 in January.
Chrysler’s February sales were its best for the month since 2008 and marks the 35th consecutive month of year-over-year sales growth. Sales of Dodge-branded vehicles rose 30%, somewhat below the 37% year-over-year growth posted in January. The Ram pickup truck brand got a sales boost of 3%, to its highest level in six years. That is considerably lower than the Ram jump of 14% in January.
At Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F), February U.S. sales rose 9% for the month year-over-year, to 195,822 units sold. In February 2012, the company sold 179,119 units. Sales in January of this year reached 166,501. The company’s push to improve its Lincoln brand continues to struggle. Sales were down 62% year-over-year in February, much worse than the 18.2% drop the brand posted in January. Lincoln sales are down 46.6% year-over-year for the first two months of 2013.
Shares of Ford are down about 1.7% in the first few minutes of trading this morning, at $12.39 in a 52-week range of $8.82 to $14.30.
General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM), Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) and Honda Motor Co. Ltd. (NYSE: HMC) will report sales later today.
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