Ford outsells Toyota in April for 1st time in a year

Ford Motor Co. turned the tables on Toyota Motor Co. in April, outselling Japan's largest automaker in monthly sales for the first time in more than a year.

For the year, Ford sales are still about 30,000 vehicles behind Toyota. But Ford is benefiting from its new Fusion hybrid and gasoline-powered models, which Ford is billing as "America's most fuel-efficient midsized sedan."

Distress at General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC are also helping the Dearborn automaker distinguish itself.

Ford, which has been promoting itself as the "different" American automaker that is surviving without federal assistance, sold 134,401 cars and trucks in April. Toyota sold 126,540.

"Ford appeared to have benefited from the misery of GM and Chrysler," observed Jesse Toprak, executive director of industry analysis for Edmunds.com.

Across the U.S. auto industry, meanwhile, light vehicle sales fell 34.4% in April, compared to the same month last year. That was the 18th consecutive month of declines. For the year, U.S. new vehicle sales are now off 37.4%.

U.S. consumers purchased just under 820,000 new cars and trucks last month, even as consumer confidence began to pick up. The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index rose more than 10 points to 39.2 on a scale of 100. While low, that's the highest score for consumer confidence this year.

The seasonally adjusted annual selling rate, or SAAR, which indicates what sales would total for the whole year if demand remained constant over 12 months, fell from 9.86 million in March to 9.32 million in April. In recent years, by comparison, that SAAR has often tracked in the 15 million to 17 million range.

Toprak said sales might have bottomed out in February, but that will be tough to call as amid the fallout of Chrysler's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing Thursday and as many wait to see GM's fate determine by a June 1 deadline.

Chrysler led the industry's decline, with its vehicle sales dropping 48% compared to last year. Chrysler ended the month with 114 days' or nearly three months of inventory. Inventory levels of about 60 days are considered ideal.

While the company's total sales fell 48%, the company noted that retail sales to consumers were down 39%, about the same percentage decline as the overall industry.

"We're bouncing along the bottom of the bath tub," said Vice Chairman Jim Press.

Toyota reported the second largest decline, with sales falling 42%, as popular models struggled.

April sales of the once-popular Toyota Prius hybrid declined 61.5%, compared to the same month a year ago when gas prices were at least $1 higher. Sales of the Toyota Camry, usually the nation's best-selling passenger car, fell 37%.

Toprak said Toyota conservative level of discounting during the month, compared to other automakers, might have contributed to its declines.

Sales at GM, meanwhile, declined 33.2% in April, which was a better performance than expected.

While GM is still the U.S. sales leader, with more than 580,000 new cars and trucks sold this year, the company's sales are now down 45% for the year, compared to the same four months a year ago.

Another strong performer last month was Honda, which saw its sales decline 25.3%, which was better than the market declines and allowed the automaker to pick up an impressive 1.5 percentage points of market share.

Ford's success over Toyota, meanwhile, was propelled primarily by its Ford Fusion sedan, which was up 21.7% in April and outsold the Nissan Altima to become the third top-selling midsize vehicle.

"The reception that new products have received over the last nine months, that's really encouraging," said George Pipas, Ford sales analyst, "because we've got a lot more new products coming."