By the Numbers - February 2010: Easy Being Green Edition

Ford outsells GM, Toyota sales fall hard

A number of things transpired last month to paint most of our By the Numbers table below green. A minor contribution can be credited to Toyota and its recall woes, the effect of which has been that many other automakers are grabbing conquest sales from the wounded Japanese automaker.

The Toyota Camry for instance, long the best-selling car in the U.S., moved 16,552 units last month compared to 20,634 the year before, a drop of almost 20 percent. The Ford Fusion, which has been gaining sales on the back of positive reviews and a mantel full of awards, sold 16,459 units last month. That's a 117-percent sales increase compared to last year, some of which we have to believe is directly attributable to customers turning away from Toyota and the Camry. (Note: The Honda Accord beat them both with 22,456 sales, though the new Crosstour accounts for 2,432 of those sales, and the Nissan Altima fell below the Fusion with 16,198 sales.)

The major contributing factor to so many brands and companies reporting positive sales results in February is the fact that sales in February of last year were so dismal. It's easy to be in the green when the bar has been reset so low. That said, Ford Motor Company's performance in particular has to be noted, as it now stands as the largest domestic U.S. automaker after selling more vehicles last month than General Motors (142,285 vs. 141,951), a feat that hasn't happened for 12 years. Expect it to happen a lot more as GM's non-core brands wind down into non-existence.

*Brands and companies are displayed in descending order according to their percentage change in volume sales. There were 24 selling days in February 2010 and 24 selling days in February 2009, so the change in monthly sales volume will be the same as the change in the average daily sales rate (DSR) for each brand/company.