Take this for what it is worth. Ford sales were up 33 percent in Dec. 2009 as compared to Dec. 2008. Toyota and Subaru’s sales also increased by a third, and Honda and Nissan sales were up 24 percent and 18 percent respectively. GM and Chrysler sales below the fold, but how is the Ford quality for you buyers out there?
General Motors’ sales were down 8 percent in Dec. 2009 as compared to the previous December and Chrysler was down 4 percent. As far as I know, GM and Chrysler are the only two auto manufactures who asked for and received bail out cash. The United States government know owns a significant percentage of both companies.
From The Washington Post with a hat tip to Volokh Conspiracy.
Ford is the only U.S. automaker to refuse government bailout money. Both GM and Chrysler took bailout money and went through government-sponsored bankruptcies.
For all of 2009, Ford sales were down 15 percent and Chrysler’s were down 36 percent compared to 2008. It was Chrysler’s worst sales year since 1962 and the first time since that year that annual Chrysler sales dropped below 1 million vehicles.
Discuss the quality of Ford vehicles in the comments section below. As happy owners of a 2006 Toyota and a 2001 Nissan, I’m not in the market for a new car, but I’m still interested in opinions on models.
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So the moral of the story is that if you take bailout money your sales don’t go up as much as if you did not take any bailout money. Product quality is dependent on bailout money.
As a former salesman for them (don’t ask!), I can tell you that they are pretty good overall in terms of quality, particularly the Fusion (derived from the Mazda 6) and the new Taurus/Taurus X (derived from their Volvo subsidiary, formerly the 500 and Freestyle). Their AWD systems worked flawlessly and effectively. The F series trucks were pretty decent, if not especially fuel efficient, but if you ever sat in a King Ranch version, you would fall in love with the leather, which was glove soft, not like the usual leather in trucks and cars. They even smell like fresh leather! The Escape is another Mazda derivative, or vice versa, but has a pretty good record. The Edge is not significantly bigger than the Escape, but is more posh and has a bigger engine. The new six speed automatic was a little buggy in ’09, but I think they might have fixed that with later programming. The Focus was a decent little car, which could break the front tires loose with a stick. They had some pukey colors though…
If I buy a new auto it will be a Ford because they took no money. Will be my first ford ever by the way and i’m 62.