Pickup Sales to Fall, Ford Says

Light & Medium Truck, Jun 2008

Ford Motor Co. forecast that U.S. industrywide sales of large pickups may decline to the fewest in a decade as more consumers turn to smaller cars.

Large pickups may slide to fewer than 2 million, a level they have topped annually since 1998, George Pipas, sales analyst for Ford, said.

Pickup sales have been hurt by a declining housing market and may rebound in 2009, he said.

The forecast by the third-largest automaker in U.S. annual sales underscores the difficulty Ford, General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC face as high gasoline prices damp demand for the larger pickups and sport-utility vehicles all three rely on more than Asian rivals.

As first-quarter U.S. sales of cars and light trucks fell 8%, those of small cars rose, Pipas wrote. - Bloomberg News