F-Series Sales Give Ford a Lift

Ford Motor Co. expects to sell a record number of its F-Series large pickup trucks this year, fending off a challenge from Nissan Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. in a market that accounts for more than a quarter of the No. 2 U.S. automaker’s domestic sales.

Ford, whose share of the U.S. car market has fallen to the lowest level since 1981, is “very confident we’ll break the record” for full-size pickup sales, spokesman Jon Harmon said. Sales of F-Series vehicles through last week were 20,000 behind the peak of 911,597 in 2001, he said.

Beating the Japanese in trucks “gives them some bragging rights,” said Erich Merkle, an analyst at consulting company IRN Inc. in Grand Rapids, Mich. “They still need product outside of the F-Series pickup. That’s the challenge at the end of the day for Ford.”

Ford is counting on new and redesigned vehicles such as the Five Hundred sedan to stem a 14% drop in car sales this year, led by the Taurus and Thunderbird. The Dearborn, Mich., company was the only U.S.-based automaker not to lose share in large pickups to Nissan’s Titan and Toyota’s Tundra.

The F-Series trucks have been revamped in the last two years, with Ford in 2003 calling the redesigned F-150, which accounts for 60% of truck sales, its most important vehicle introduction that year. The F-Series boosted its U.S. market share among large pickups 1.1 percentage points to 38.1% this year through November, according to Autodata Corp.

Ford shares rose 14 cents to $14.88 on the New York Stock Exchange.