Honda Motor Co Ltd (ADR) (HMC), Toyota Motor Corporation (ADR) (TM): Ford Motor Company (F) Sales Beat Estimates As Demand Surged

Czubay and Merkle hinted that inventories have been tight on several of Ford’s hot models. The company recently added production for the F-Series and Explorer, and a new assembly line for the Fusion opened in Michigan just last week. Maxed-out assembly lines have been a theme for Ford for a while, and the company may have to do further juggling to increase production of other hot sellers such as the Escape in coming months.

The upshot: Ford’s performance was pretty good, all things considered

At this point, it’s fair to say that Ford’s sales gains in some segments have been limited by supply, not demand. Dealers will have more Fusions to sell in a month or two, and continued tweaks to production schedules should help supplies of other models as well.

But Ford did well with what it had in August. It’s likely that the big sales gains for Toyota Motor Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:TM) and Honda Motor Co Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:HMC) were helped by the favorable exchange-rate shifts we’ve seen over the last several months – shifts that allow the Japanese makers to be more aggressive with pricing and incentives here in the U.S.

But Ford mostly kept pace in terms of retail sales – its most profitable sales – despite some constraints on supplies of models like the Fusion. And really, having to expand to keep up with demand for a solidly profitable lineup of vehicles is a problem that many automakers would like to be having right now.

The article Ford Sales Beat Estimates As Demand Surged originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by John Rosevear.

Fool contributor John Rosevear owns shares of Ford and General Motors. You can connect with him on Twitter at @jrosevear. The Motley Fool recommends Ford and General Motors. The Motley Fool owns shares of Ford.

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