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Ford Motor's sales slide in April

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Date: Thursday 01 May 2008

LONDON (ShareCast) - The Ford Motor Company, which last week announced a move back into profit, had disappointing US sales in April as soaring petrol prices choked off demand for new vehicles.

The company said sales of cars and light trucks in April fell 12% to 200,007 from 227,414 in April of last year, despite the 2008 period containing two more selling days than April 2007.

Demand for gas guzzling sports utility vehicles (SUVs) was especially badly hit by the rising price of fuel, with sales down by 36%. Car sales were down just 1%, thanks to the popularity of the Ford Focus which saw sales surge 44%, reflecting a nationwide trend towards smaller cars as the price of petrol heads towards $3.50 a gallon.

Ford announced last month that it would increase production of the Focus model by about 30% to meet burgeoning demand.

The US market remains the major trouble spot for Ford. Last week it said a strong performance in Europe and South America compensated for sluggish US sales, enabling it to post positive first quarter net income of $100m, or 5 cents a share, compared with a loss of $282m (-15 cents a share) in the first quarter of 2007.