• Detroit Free Press, Wednesday, March 3, 2010 10:38 AM

Columnist Mark Phelan writes that Ford's stunning 43.4% sales increase last month -- more than three times as strong as the industry's overall 13.3% growth -- has less to do with Toyota's pratfall or General Motor's restructuring than it does with a strong new vehicle lineup.

"Ford is really on a roll," IHS Global Insight analyst Aaron Bragman tells Phelan. "This is the payoff to years of investment and restructuring. Ford is only going to get stronger this year as more strong new vehicles arrive."

Ford outsold General Motors by 429 vehicles -- the first time since 1998 that it has topped GM in monthly U.S. sales. At the time, GM was hit by a strike and it's now, of course, refocusing on four core brands after shuttering or selling Saab, Saturn and Pontiac.

In Marketing Daily this morning, Karl Greenberg reports on the second phase of Ford's social-media effort to drive awareness of the Ford Fiesta compact, which goes on sale in the U.S. this summer.

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