Ford Vehicle

The worst U.S. sales slump in recent Ford Motor Co. history may finally be screeching to a halt. In November, Ford’s sales–including its European luxury brands–totaled 182,096, 0.6 percent higher than last November’s sales of 180,947 vehicles. The November tally is Ford’s first sales increase since October 2006. But don’t pop those champagne corks just yet. For the rest of the industry, November was a mixed bag. GM reported an 11 percent decline and Chrysler posted a 2 percent decline.

Toyota, VW, Honda, Nissan and Hyundai all posted gains. All told, the industry reported total sales of 1,180,269 vehicles, down 1.6 percent from November 2006. For the first 11 months of the year, the industry has sold 14,763,831 vehicles, a decline of 2.4 percent from the same period last year. Ford’s sales increase didn’t come at the all-important retail level.

It was driven primarily by a rise in commercial and government fleet sales, said George Pipas, Ford’s sales analysis and reporting manager. Retail sales suffered as consumer confidence, falling home prices and high food and fuel costs converged to keep consumers from showrooms, according to Ford economist Emily Kolinski Morris. For the first 11 months of 2007, Ford’s sales dropped 12.1 percent to 2,348,278 vehicles, compared with 2,670,398 vehicles sold during the same 11 months of 2006.

Ford said the November gain was driven by sales of the new Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX crossovers. The Ford Focus car posted an 18 percent sales gain, while sales of the Ford Fusion sedan were up 39 percent, Ford said. Toyota’s overall sales, including Lexus and Scion, were 197,188, the company’s best November ever. That’s up 0.3 percent from sales of 196,696 in November 2006. Toyota’s sales for the year are up 3.6 percent. But Toyota hit a few potholes last month.