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Ford Motor's January U.S. Auto Sales Drop 5.2 Percent; Nissan Posts GainFeb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Ford Motor Co.'s U.S. sales of cars and trucks fell 5.2 percent in January from the same month last year as the world's third-largest automaker kept incentive spending almost unchanged from December. The 230,036 vehicles sold last month included declines of 14 percent for cars and less than 1 percent for trucks, the Dearborn, Michigan-based company said in a statement. Nissan Motor Co. said its U.S. sales rose 31 percent to 72,164. ``It spells trouble in 2004 for the domestic automakers, particularly for Ford,'' said Rebecca Lindland, a forecaster at Global Insight Inc., which predicted Ford sales would fall 1.3 percent. ``Particularly with the new F-150 pickup, Ford should have had more floor traffic to dealerships and if they did, it didn't translate into sales of other models.'' Ford was hurt by a 27 percent decline for the Taurus, its best-selling car, and by a drop in minivan sales as its switches to the new Freestar from the Windstar. The automaker in January spent an average of $4,296 per vehicle on rebates and loan discounts, up less than 1 percent from the previous month, according to CNW Marketing Research Inc. Sales of F-Series pickups rose 9.6 percent, helped by the redesigned F-150. ``Where we saw weakness was in our passenger car lineup, particularly midsized cars,'' Ford sales analyst George Pipas said in a statement ``We've also seen weakness in our minivans.'' Lack of Advertising Ford didn't start national minivan advertising until yesterday, so ``very few customers know that there are new minivans in the Ford and Mercury showrooms,'' Pipas said. ``We expect to see better results in the coming months.'' Five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg estimated that Ford's sales would fall 4.6 percent, adjusted for one more sales day in January than in the year-earlier month. On that basis, Ford's sales fell 8.8 percent. Nissan, Japan's third-biggest automaker, said its U.S. sales of cars and light trucks were helped by new models such as the Titan pickup and Armada sport-utility vehicle and by demand for Infiniti luxury vehicles. The sales rose 32 percent to 62,772 for the Nissan brand and 22 percent to 9,392 for Infiniti. ``We had Nissan up 12 percent and I thought that was a lot to expect,'' Lindland said. ``This means more market share losses for the domestic automakers.'' Industry Forecast Cars and light trucks this month sold at an annual rate of 16.7 million, according to the initial average estimate of the five analysts and a survey of economists by Bloomberg News last week. That would be up from 16.2 million in the year-earlier month and lower than December's 18.1 million. General Motors Corp., the world's largest automaker, and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler unit, third biggest in the U.S., and other automakers report their U.S. sales later today. Ford shares fell 17 cents to $13.77 at 12:55 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. General Motors declined 79 cents to $47.91 and the U.S. shares of Stuttgart, Germany-based DaimlerChrysler fell 88 cents to $46.68. Back to Original Article: Mortgage News You Can Use
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