The early general March sales figures just crossed the wire. Overall, Ford, Lincoln and Mercury sales totaled 125,107 in March, down 41 percent compared with March 2008. Retail sales were down 36 percent compared with a year ago and fleet sales were down 50 percent.
Ford sales increased 30 percent compared with February 2009 with retail sales up 34 percent and fleet sales up 22 percent.

Ford idles F-150 output in Kansas City for 3 weeks.

Inventories down 27%

Biggest gains in market share since 2006.

Still waiting for the actual numbers, but they had a better March than February. Still lousy year over year, but their competition did much worse.

 

When did/is KC shutdown for 3 weeks?

 

To balance production with demand:

Ford idles F-150 output in Kansas City for 3 weeks
DETROIT, April 1 (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co (F.N) has idled production of its F-150 pickup truck for three weeks at its assembly plant in Kansas City due to slow demand, a spokeswoman said on Wednesday.
Ford builds the pickup truck on two shifts at the plant, which also produces the Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner sport- utility vehicles and their hybrid variants.
The pickup truck production was idled effective at the start of this week and production is scheduled to resume the week of April 20, Ford spokeswoman Angie Kozleski said.
The plant has nearly 3,900 hourly workers overall.
Ford, which posted a company record $14.7 billion net loss last year, said it remains committed to sizing production capacity to real demand for its vehicles.
Sales of Ford's F-Series pickups that include the F-150 were down nearly 45 percent to 81,579 vehicles in the first quarter of 2009 from the same period a year ago.

 

I sure hope this doesn't affect my build date.

 

If your truck is coming from Kansas City, likely will. I would also be concerned about build quality for the 1st few days back in production in late April.

 

Yeah it's def going to affect orders. But at least we ain't got the problem GM and Chrysler are having. vehicle value's from them brands if they go bankrupt are expected to fall 50%+ lol.

 

I just emailed me dealer to find out where my truck will be built. I am really hoping he doesn't say KC.

 

More data:
F150 sales down 39.9% y/y. They were down 55.1%y/y last month so improvements were made. Looks like 32,728 F150's sold in March. Still #1, and says gained market share but GM, Toyota, and Chrysler numbers not out yet.

Nevertheless, that's a 38% increase in F150 sales over last month so there is a silver lining. And, surprisingly, this was done without additonal incentives.

 

Y/Y figures speak for themselves. There's small comfort knowing March sales improved over February but it's improvement nonetheless.

The auto industry is in dire straits - let's hope the industry condition improves.

 

And as I suspected...my truck is scheduled to be built in KC. Add this to the fact it is supposed to be built on April 20th (ie. 4-20)...i'm not pleased.