Ford-Toyota: A Race to Watch
April 25, 2008

By Michelle Krebs

While most eyes are on the global sales and production race between Toyota and General Motors, another interesting contest is developing in the U.S. – between the Ford and Toyota brands.

For the past two months, the Ford brand has outsold the Toyota brand. Ford’s recent gains narrowed the gap for the first quarter to less than 3,000 vehicles between it and Toyota. In 2007, Toyota closed the books 127,606 vehicle sales ahead of Ford. Throughout 2007, Toyota led Ford by about 10,000 plus vehicles a month.

This race could come down to finish line as Toyota’s Tundra loses steam and Ford tries to gain momentum with the redesigned 2009 Ford F-150 it launches for fall, though both are duking it out in an extremely tough pickup truck environment. Toyota recently announced plans to slash Tundra production at its San Antonio, Tex., plant to 180,000 vehicles this year, down from the originally planned 200,000.

Meantime, Ford’s Focus is going gangbusters and it introduces the new Flex crossover this fall. Toyota’s Prius, which outsold the Tundra in March, remains strong as gas prices soar.

Photo by Ford
2009 Ford F-150

Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds.com’s manager of Pricing and Industry Analysis, provided the analysis for this report.

Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:01 AM under Analysis , Ford , Toyota | Comments (0) | digg this | Seed Newsvine