Ford gains US market share

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} Ford, the only one of the "Big Three" US automakers which has not gone into bankruptcy, has reported sales figures for May which show its largest share of the US market since 2006.   Ford sold 155,954 vehicles in the United States in May, which is 24 percent down on the same month last year, but up 20 percent from April.   On the day after filing for bankruptcy, General Motors announced that its May sales were down 30 percent from a year ago but up 11 percent from April.   GM sold 191,875 cars and light trucks during the month, with the poorest performance coming from the brands it plans to purgeÔÇöPontiac, Hummer, Saturn and Saab.   Chrysler, which filed for bankruptcy on 30 April, saw its sales in the US fall 47 percent from May 2008 to 79,010.   Many of Chrysler's sales came after heavy discounting, as 789 of its dealers are due to stop selling the company's vehicles next week.   Meanwhile Ford has moved to increase production to take advantage of the problems facing GM and Chrysler, with plans to make an extra 10,000 vehicles in the April to June quarter and 42,000 more than were originally planned for the following quarter.   "At Ford, the future is now," said Ford's Ken Czubay. "New products account for 50 percent of our sales, and demand for these products is driving our market share gains," he added.     *┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á *┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á *