Ford Motor : Sound Bites: March 2016 Sales

'For the month we sold 254,711 vehicles in the U.S. That's an 8 percent gain versus year ago, while first quarter sales of 645,626 vehicles were up 9 percent. This represents the Company's best sales performance for March and the first quarter since 2006.' :22 sec.

For the month, Edge was up 49 percent, Escape was up 8 percent and Explorer was up 4 percent, while F-Series rose 9 percent versus a year ago.

'Total Ford brand SUVs are off to their best start in company history. With first quarter total sales of 188,100 vehicles which is up 15 percent versus last year. March SUV sales also were up 13 percent with 72,872 SUVs sold, marking our best March performance in 15 years.' :27 sec.

Let's talk about F-Series and how well that segment did.

'F-Series sales exceeded 70,000 mark in March, with 73,884 trucks sold. 2007 is the last time F-Series broke the 70,000 mark this early in the year. F-Series sales rose 9 percent versus last year, marking their best March performance since 2006. For the quarter, F-Series sales totaled 186,121 trucks, and that's up 5 percent.' :28 sec.

Car sales were up 1 percent, while SUVs grew 16 percent and trucks rose 9 percent to start the year....is that imbalance a sign of the times?

'Well it's very indicative of the market place overall. We're seeing great strength in SUVs, people want more SUVs and those SUVs are pulling from the car segment more, and we're also seeing strong improvements in trucks, as we see things like construction and the economy continue to expand its really demanded a lot from the truck segment.' :26 sec.

Lincoln sales were up 11 percent in March, but most of that came from SUV sales.