Ford Motor Company's US sales fell 6.8 percent in May to 259,470 vehicles amid a sharp drop in passenger car sales, the automaker said on June 01.
Ford said the bulk of the loss came from a planned reduction in low-margin sales to rental companies. While retail sales were down three percent in May, Ford said the month showed the best performance this year.
Car sales fell an annual 17.7 percent in May to 89,126 and were down 21.6 percent for the year to date at 386,135 vehicles. Truck sales were essentially flat at 170,344 in May but have fallen 5.7 percent to 744,918 for the year to date.
The bulk of the losses came from the Ford brand while Lincoln, Mercury and Land Rover sales saw significant growth but at relatively small volumes.
The struggling Jaguar brand saw sales drop 41.9 percent to 1,379 in May and 25.7 percent to 7,051 for the year to date. Ford said its new and redesigned crossover sports utility vehicles helped it achieve its best retail sales performance of 2007 as total crossover sales rose a monthly 67 percent.
The all-new Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX set sales records in May with Edge sales up 39 percent from April at 12,701 units and MKX sales up 20 percent from April at 3,490 units.