Ford Closing In On Overtaking Toyota As America's Favorite Brand

The Ford brand is closing in on Toyota as the favorite of retail auto buyers, a sign of rising popularity of the Fusion mid-size car and Escape sport-utility vehicle, and of growing dismay with the Japanese manufacturer.

Toyota Motor Corp.’s namesake brand, a default choice of a generation of car buyers who admired its high quality, lost ground during the past six years amid recalls, natural disasters and stiffer competition.

Its share of the U.S. retail market fell to 13.5 percent last year from 16.3 percent in 2008, according to data provided to Bloomberg by IHS Automotive using Polk vehicle-registration records. Toyota’s 2.8 percentage point loss matched the gain of Ford Motor Co.’s main brand, to a 13.2 percent share, over the same period.

delan - 3/1/2014 6:00:21 AM

+3 Boost

As it should be, by golly!!

MicrosoftUser - 3/1/2014 11:59:45 AM

+2 Boost

Not the least bit surprised considering all of Toyota's very boring designs, recalls and other issues it has many people are finally realizing Toyotas is not the car to buy and even with all the problems Ford has had with Sync because of Microsoft (BlackBerry coming to the rescue soon to fix that). Ford's new fresh and cool designs, quality and other factors just make it much more appealing. Just seeing a lot more of the new Fords on the roads lately and you can figure out why they are closing in on Toyota.

MattDarringer - 3/1/2014 2:37:59 PM

+2 Boost

The Fusion is a lot better than the Camry. The Focus is better than the all new Corolla mess. Good work Ford.