Ford Sales Decline In April

Ford Motor Co. on Monday reported a double-digit drop in car sales in April, leading to a 4 percent decline in its U.S. vehicle sales compared with a year ago.

The industry’s total U.S. sales also fell 4 percent in April, led by a 6 percent decline in sales by the Big Three. Japanese automakers posted a 2 percent gain in U.S. sales last month, compared with April 1996. European automakers’ sales were up 20 percent.

Some analysts were unconcerned about the fall in industry sales.

“It’s a welcome slowdown,” David Bradley of J.P Morgan Securities Inc. said. The automakers, he said, are taking “a breather after the torrid pace for the first three months of the year.”

“Overall,” he said, “we’re still in a very healthy market.”

Ford, the last of the domestic automakers to report April figures, said car sales fell 11 percent last month. Meanwhile, Ford’s sales of pickups, minivans and sport utility vehicles increased nearly 1 percent.

Joel Pitcoff, a market analysis manager for Ford, said car sales continued to fall because of aggressive foreign competition and a consumer shifts to light trucks.