Ford Closes 2017 As America’s Best-Selling Brand; F-Series is America’s Best-Selling Pickup for 41st Year in a Row
Ford Motor Company ended 2017 with a 0.9% uptick in December sales, delivering a total of 242,049 vehicles in the final month of the year. Ford brand sales rose 1.9% at 231,430 vehicles delivered, bringing total sales for 2017 to 2,475,556 vehicles—good enough for Ford’s eighth consecutive year as the best-selling auto brand in America.
The Ford brand was guided to this milestone, unsurprisingly, by its trucks and SUVs. Ford truck sales were up 4.3% in 2017 at 1,123,416 delivered, including nearly 900,000 F-Series trucks sold throughout the year. SUV sales rose 3.1% from 2016 at 796,302 delivered, setting a new full-year sales record with the help of record deliveries from Escape and Edge.
“December capped off a record year for Ford brand SUVs, making it eight consecutive years of Ford brand sales leadership,” said Mark LaNeve, Ford vice president, US Marketing, Sales, and Service. “F-Series had an unbelievable year as we sold nearly 900,000 pickups, with strong high-end truck demand as customers continue to opt for our latest technology and equipment packages.”
F-Series saw its best December in 12 years last month with 89,385 trucks delivered, up 2.1% year-over-year. In total, Ford sold 896,764 F-Series trucks in 2017, up 9.3% from 2016 and more than enough to make F-Series America’s best-selling pickup truck for an incredible 41st year in a row. F-Series average transaction prices (ATPs) were also a record best, up $3,400 from 2016 at $47,800 per truck sold thanks to high-series F-150 and Super Duty sales.
Ford brand SUVs also posted a December record with 75,771 vehicles sold and a 10.3% year-over-year increase. Sales of the Ford Expedition were strong at 5,458 vehicles, driven by the popularity of the newly-launched 2018 model. The 2018 Expedition took just seven days to turn in December, and nearly 50% of all Expeditions sold were high-end Platinum models.
Ford Escape and Edge also posted strong finishes with respective growth of 1.8% and 7.6%. Both SUVs posted full-year sales records, with Escape sales up 0.4% at 308,296 vehicles delivered and Edge sales up 6% at 142,603 vehicles delivered. Sales of the Ford Explorer were also up big in 2018, rising 10.1% at 238,056 delivered.
Ford car sales were down 14.9% for the year, with not one vehicle in Ford’s car lineup posting year-over-year sales growth. Deliveries of the Ford GT totaled 89 units in 2017.
Ford Motor Company sales for 2017, including Lincoln Motor Company sales, were down 1.1% at 2,586,715 vehicles delivered.
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