Ford forges forward with Florida spearhead

The counterintuitive decision by Ford Motor Co. executives to reject billions of dollars in federal bailout money in 2009 has paid off in unexpected places.

No more so than the Sunshine State, where Ford's central and south regions, which respectively cover the entire Gulf Coast, are now two of the fastest growing units in the entire company. The central region, which stretches from Orlando to Tampa and Sarasota-Bradenton, reported a 19.4% increase in 2010 sales over 2009, while the south region, which covers Lee and Collier counties, reported a 21.5% increase.

Rick Brisson, regional manager of the central region, tells Coffee Talk that Ford's product line and price structure is part of the reason for the sales surge. But he also says it clearly helps to be the only Big Three automaker to turn away government funds, what he calls the halo effect.

“Every single day we still have customers who come into our showrooms and say they want to buy a Ford because we didn't take financial support,” says Brisson. “That has lingered on.”

On a national scale, meanwhile, Ford's annual sales growth is a sparkling antidote to national car industry woes. Among the highlights:

• The company sold 1.94 million cars in 2010, up 19% from 2009. The increase was the largest among all full-line automakers;

• Several individual models saw significant sales increases. The Fusion midsize sedan, for example, set a sales record with 219,219 sales in 2010, up 21% from 2009. That was also the first time a Ford car surpassed 200,000 sales in a year since 2004, the company says. Sales for the Taurus, the full-size sedan, were up 51%;

• Overall market share reached 16.4% last year, the company says, which was a 1.1 percentage-point increase over 2009 and a 2.2 percentage-point increase over 2008. The rise marks Ford's first back-to-back increase in market share since 1993.