Ford announced its final sales figures for the year of 2018 on Thursday and—surprise, surprise—the trucks and SUVs came out on top. Most notably, the company’s F-Series line of pickup trucks was apparently the best-selling pickup in America for the 42nd year in a row.
“December capped another strong year for Ford and the industry,” said Ford Vice President Mark LaNeve. “Ford sold more than 900,000 F-Series trucks in 2018 to extend our leadership position to 42 consecutive years as America’s best-selling pickup.”
Forty-two years. Any way you slice it, that’s a long-ass time to be No. 1. Forty-two years ago, Family Feud was a brand new television show, Peyton Manning was still learning to walk, and the position of POTUS was occupied, quite appropriately perhaps, by a man named Gerald Ford.
What’s more, Ford (the car company) sold 217,653 commercial vans in 2018 including the E-Series, Transit, and Transit Connect, putting it at the top of that segment for the 40th year in a row.
While Lincoln SUV sales, as Ford points out, went up overall, it was entirely on the back of the new Navigator as sales of the MKC, MKX/Nautilus, and MKT were all down from 2017.
As for car sales, Ford’s lower-riding offerings unsurprisingly didn’t do so hot, clocking an 18.4 percent year-over-year overall sales drop. Ford’s biggest losers were the C-Max and Focus which recorded annual sales declines of 63.7 and 28.4 percent, respectively.
Fun-ish fact while we’re on the subject of Ford sales: a total of 126 GT supercars were sold last year, just one of which was sold in the month of December. You’re welcome.