Ford drops to 4th place in market share in November

Ford Motor Co.'s market share fell into the fourth pace in November for the first time in its history, behind Toyota Motor of Japan and the German-American automaker DaimlerChrysler, The New York Times reported Saturday.

In November, the world's second-largest automaker sold 10 percent fewer vehicles than it did a year ago, sending its market share in the United States down to 14.8 percent from 16.9 percent of the same period of last year, said the report, which quoted figures released Friday by Ward's AutoInfoBank.

By contrast, Toyota's sales increased 16 percent, giving it a market share of 16.5 percent, while DaimlerChrysler, which includes the Chrysler Group and Mercedes-Benz, sold 5 percent more vehicles to earn a share of 15.6 percent.

General Motors (GM) is the largest automaker, with a share of 24.6 percent.

The results capped a bleak few days for Ford in which it revealed plans to mortgage its factories and other assets to raise 18 billion dollars in cash, then projected that in the next year it would spend much of that in payments to the 40 percent of its hourly workers who are taking company buyouts and leaving their jobs.

GM reported a 6 percent sales increase in November, and the Chrysler Group ended a long streak of declines and placed No. 3 for the first time since March by posting a gain of 3 percent. Both sold fewer passenger cars but more trucks than a year ago, while Ford's sales declined in both categories.

Ford and GM said they would reduce production in the first quarter of 2007 -- Ford by 14.4 percent and GM by 9 percent -- to help clear inventories and to prepare for planned cuts in sales to rental car agencies.

Ford attributed much of its sales decline in November to fewer rental agency sales, which are significantly less profitable than transactions at dealerships.

Source: Xinhua