Ford Motor Co. outsells General Motors in US in March

Combining sales of Ford (203,794) and Lincoln (8501), Ford Motor Co. delivered 212,295 vehicles in March, compared with General Motors’ 206,621 vehicles – comprising Chevrolet (148,197), GMC (30,597), Buick (15,663) and Cadillac (12,164).

Ford last outsold GM in February 2010 and July 1998 before that.

Ford’s sales are up 12 percent year-to-date, despite no longer having the Mercury and Volvo brands under the Blue Oval umbrella.

GM has jumped a remarkable 25 percent compared with the same period last year, with its four brands all enjoying sales increases between 23 and 39 percent. For the year, GM still leads Ford by 97,038 sales.

The battle between the Chevrolet Cruze and the new Ford Focus is currently being won by GM, with the Cruze eclipsing the Focus 18,018 units to 17,178 in March.

The Ford F-Series truck is still the undisputed favourite in the US, with 53,272 sales for the month.

Across the entire industry, sales were up 17 percent compared with March 2010 (1,246,668 vs 1,066,298). For the first quarter, sales are up 20 percent, which is more than 500,000 vehicles (3,060,140 vs 2,545,653).

Toyota Motor Corp. sales have increased 13 percent year-to-date, but were surprisingly down six percent in March compared with 2010 (176,222 vs 186,863).

Hyundai Group (Hyundai and Kia) has enjoyed a 31 percent increase (59,189 units) this year.

Chrysler Group, American Honda and Nissan have also enjoyed sales increases of between 20 and 25 percent in the first quarter of 2011.

The March result puts the US on a seasonally adjusted annual selling rate of 13.1 million, up 1.6 million units from the same time last year.