Ford sales rise 25 percent in January, buoyed by economy and Toyota recall; Subaru also rises

George Pipas, Ford’s top sales analyst, said he did not see evidence that Ford was taking buyers from Toyota Motor Corp., which halted U.S. sales of eight popular models due to faulty gas pedals in the final week of the month.

Ken Czubay, Ford’s vice president of sales, said Toyota’s actions may have hurt sales overall toward the end of last month.

“Consumers were uncertain as to where to go relative to buy a new car, just what’s the value of the trade-in,” he said. “There was a tremendous amount of uncertainty. I don’t think the month enjoyed its normal pickup on the last weekend of the month.”

Dealers reported having trouble assigning values to Toyota models that customers wanted to trade for a new car until the problems have been fixed.

Normally more sales take place at the end of each month as automakers and dealers sweeten deals to meet their monthly sales goals.

Ford was expecting to snatch some sales from Toyota, which stopped selling the Camry sedan and seven other cars and trucks on Jan. 26 following a recall over sticky accelerator pedals. Ford and General Motors Corp. are offering incentives to Toyota drivers who trade in vehicles.

Toyota has said dealers will get the parts to fix the problem by the end of this week, but in the meantime Toyota could lose thousands of sales in January and February. The recall affects 2.3 million cars and trucks in the U.S.

The car-buying site Edmunds.com predicted Toyota’s U.S. market share would drop to 14.7 percent in January, its lowest level since March 2006.

Ford, the only Detroit automaker to avoid bankruptcy court, estimated that its U.S. market share rose to 16 percent in January, up 2 percentage points from last January. Ford ended 2009 with its first full-year gain in market share since 1995.

After a strong December, automakers were anxious to see whether any momentum would carry into January and signal that an economic recovery is underway. Edmunds predicted overall sales would be up 7 percent from last January but down 32 percent from December, when year-end clearance sales fueled buying.

Demand for fuel-efficient models continued to be strong. Ford’s sales of its Fusion midsize sedan rose nearly 50 percent, while sales of the small Ranger pickup climbed 47 percent. New or redesigned models also were robust. Subaru said its sales were up 28 percent thanks to a doubling in sales for the newly redesigned Legacy sedan and Outback crossover.

Korean automaker Kia said its January U.S. sales were essentially flat. Other automakers, including Toyota, were scheduled to report results later Tuesday.

Pipas said much of his company’s sales increase came from a jump in sales to rental car companies, governments and other large fleet buyers.

Ford’s fleet sales were up more than 150 percent over for January of last year, and he predicted a large increase for other automakers as well.

In January of 2009, he said, fleet sales dropped dramatically because companies stopped buying due to tight credit and the uncertain economy.

Industrywide, he predicted that fleet sales will rise 50 percent or more.

Ford’s figures include commercial vehicles, which are a small percentage of Ford’s overall sales.