DEARBORN, Mich., May 1, 2013 /PRNewswire/ –

• Ford Motor Company April U.S. sales up 18 percent compared to last year – best April sales since 2007, with cars up 21 percent, utilities up 16 percent and trucks up 16 percent
• Fusion and Escape both establish April sales records, with sales increases of 24 and 52 percent respectively
• F-Series, America’s best-selling pickup for 36 years, posts a 24 percent increase, with sales of 59,030 – best April sales results since 2006
• Lincoln overall sales up 21 percent; MKZ delivers its best monthly sales performance ever – with April sales passing the 4,000 vehicle mark for the first time in MKZ history

Ford’s April sales climbed 18 percent with gains across the portfolio – with cars up 21 percent, utilities up 16 percent, and trucks up 16 percent. Retail sales were up 27 percent.

“We are working harder than ever to keep pace with record demand for our all-new, fuel-efficient Fusion and Escape – with sales growth particularly strong on the coasts,” said Ken Czubay, Ford vice president, U.S. Marketing, Sales and Service. “F-Series pickups also continue to build on their momentum as the housing and construction industries rebound.”

Fusion continues its strong sales run with best-ever April sales results of 26,722 vehicles, a 24 percent increase over record year-ago April levels. The strongest retail sales increases for Fusion continue to come from the western and southeastern U.S. – with the sales in the West doubling in April and the Southeast up 70 percent.

Escape also had its strongest April sales since its launch 13 years ago, reporting a 52 percent increase with 25,826 vehicles sold.

Sales of America’s best-selling pickup, the Ford F-Series increased 24 percent, with 59,030 pickups sold. This represents F-Series best April sales results since 2006. It also is the 21^st straight monthly sales increase for F-Series – with sales up 19 percent year to date.

In April, Lincoln sales increased 21 percent. The new Lincoln MKZ established an all-time monthly sales record, with 4,012 vehicles sold for the month – breaking the 4,000 vehicle mark for the first time ever.

SOURCE: Ford Motor Company

When 1,000 people were asked if they viewed each of the car makers as very favorable, somewhat favorable, somewhat unfavorable or very unfavorable, Ford came out strong.

44% of respondents said they looked favorably upon Ford, while only 12% and 13% said the same of Chrysler and GM respectively. When looking at all positive responses, 78% of responses were positive for Ford, 54% for GM and 43% for Chrysler.

The unfavorables are equally as enlightening. Ford saw only 13% unfavorable ratings, GM 45% and Chrysler 43%.

The assumption would be that the bailouts hurt the car companies that took them, but why work from assumption? The survey then asked respondents how the bailouts affect their impressions of the big three.

The President and V.P. have been out campaigning hard on the auto bailout. On Sunday the President used his weekly address to remind Americans that it was a major achievement. 55% of respondents said that the bailouts were a bad idea. 57% said it made them more likely to buy a Ford and 52% said it made them less likely to buy a car from GM. 17% said they knew someone that bought a Ford simply because the automaker did not take tax payer money to weather the recession.

Perhaps the auto bailout is not something the President should be touting so loudly.

Overall, the top manufacturers on the Scorecards in March were Hyundai, BMW, and Ford. Near the bottom of the list were Mazda, Jaguar, and Smart. The brands that received the highest grades were Hyundai, Scion, Kia, and BMW. The brands with the lowest grades were Mazda, Jaguar, and Smart.

The manufacturers with the largest gains, from February 2012 to March 2012 were:

• Mitsubishi moved from a C to a B
• Ford moved from a A- to an A+
• Jaguar Land Rover moved from a B to a B+
• Subaru moved from a B- to a B
• Toyota moved from a B- to a B+
• Daimler moved from a C+ to a B

The manufacturers with the steepest declines, from February 2012 to March 2012 were:

• GM moved from an A to a C+
• Honda moved from a B+ to a C
• BMW moved from an A to a B-
• Suzuki moved from a B- to a C-

Below are the highest and lowest manufacturer and brand rankings by TrueCar.com:

• Focus contributed to 30 percent of Ford Motor Company sales growth in January, more than any other vehicle in the Ford product lineup. Focus sales were 14,400 vehicles, up 60 percent – the  best January Focus sales performance since 2003
• F-Series sales of 38,493 vehicles, up 8 percent. Ford has more than 75 percent share of the retail V6 full-size pickup market and most fuel-efficient full line of pickups on the market

Ford Motor Company U.S. sales totaled 136,710 vehicles in January, a 7 percent increase versus year-old levels. The Ford brand totaled 131,589 vehicles in January, making it the best January sales month for the Ford brand since 2008.

“January started off with solid sales versus year-ago levels,” said Ken Czubay, Ford vice president, U.S. Marketing, Sales and Service. “Ford saw the same solid month, with smaller vehicles in higher demand. Escape continued its record-setting run, and Focus set the pace for car sales in California, Texas and the Southeast.”

Ford brand grew small car, utility and truck sales in January versus a year ago. Focus small car and Escape utility combined provided 49 percent of Ford Motor Company volume growth in January. With 17,259 Escape vehicles sold, it was another best-ever January for Escape, topping last January by 24 percent.

Sales of the Ford Explorer totaled 9,966, a 36 percent gain versus strong year-ago results.

Ford F-Series, America’s top-selling vehicle for the past 30 years, posted January sales of 38,493 vehicles, representing an 8 percent increase. EcoBoost-equipped F-150s represented 42 percent of retail sales in January, providing Ford a retail F-150 V6 engine mix (EcoBoost V6 and Ford’s 3.7-liter V6) of 54 percent for the month.

“Ford’s lineup of high-quality, fuel-efficient cars, utilities and trucks continues to attract more and more new customers,” said Erich Merkle, Ford’s sales analysis manager. “With gasoline prices tracking higher than last year, customers continue to move toward smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles, whether they are passenger cars or utilities.”

Both the Ford Fiesta and Ford Focus achieve 40 mpg highway, while the Ford Explorer brings a class leading 28 mpg highway with its new EcoBoost engine.

Ford’s smallest utility, the fuel-efficient Escape, has achieved record sales volumes this year and is America’s best selling utility vehicle.

Overall, Ford brand small cars are on pace to post an increase of more than 20 percent this year. Ford brand utilities are tracking to post more than a 30 percent gain.

The Foundation filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission against Chrysler Corporation for its television and print ads for the Chrysler 300.  The tagline of the ad states, “Imported from Detroit.”  Joel D. Joseph, general counsel to the Foundation said, “The ads are clever, but they are false.  The Chrysler 300 is made in Canada.  The Chrysler 300 is assembled in Brampton, Ontario, Canada and often includes a Mexican-made engine.  Last time I checked, Detroit is not in Canada.  Chrysler is flat wrong to imply the Chrysler 300 is made in the United States and we have asked the FTC to order corrective advertising.”

The complaint against Ford is for a radio advertisement for the Ford Fusion.  The ad states that the Fusion is an American car.  Joseph said, ” The Fusion is made in Mexico, and is not an American car.  The Ford ad misleads and confuses the public and we have asked the Federal Trade Commission to stop the ads.”

The Made in the USA Foundation has also alleged that Chrysler and Ford have stripped country-of-origin information off of these and other cars at the New York, Washington, Detroit and Los Angeles Auto Shows.  Joseph said, “Chrysler and Ford are intentionally misleading consumers by implying all of their vehicles are Made in the USA, when they are not.  To add to their wrongdoing Chrysler and Ford have removed country of origin labels from their car windows at auto shows where millions of consumers get their first look at many new cars.”

The Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in 1989 and dedicated to promoting American-made products.  Although its initial funding was provided the Ford Motor Company, the Foundation will object when Ford violates the law.

Both Chrysler and GM borrowed billions from tax payers thanks to the current administration. We were even told that a great return on our investment would be forthcoming. Not so. Instead, the companies that have received taxpayer dollars are seeing a 41%+decrease in car sales while Ford, who asked for and received nothing, only saw a minuscule 5% reduction.

The government has broken social security, medicare, medicaid, screwed up the public school system, and not taken care of our broken infrastructure.  At what point did we believe that they could run a car company (let alone two)?

Imagine where we’ll be once the government owns health care…. just imagine.