Ford Group U.S. Sales Plunge 40.2% in January

It appears that there's no end to the sales crisis that has hit the U.S. auto industry. In January 2009, Ford Motor Company's U.S. sales that include the Ford, Lincoln, Mercury and Volvo brands, fell to 93,506 units, a 40.2 percent decline versus a year ago (156,391 units). Volvo was the hardest hit as its January sales plunged 63.8 percent to a mere 2,910 vehicles. FoMoCo said that its inventories were 420,000 vehicles at the end of January, which is 156,000 vehicles lower than a year ago. During the past 12 months, the Ford's inventories were reduced by 27 percent which is consistent with the company's sales decline (22 percent) during this same period.