- Ford and Lincoln both posted declines in the first quarter.
- F-Series sales tumbled 16%, while the Mach-E fell 60.4%.
- Mustang, Explorer, and Expedition all posted big gains.
General Motors wasn’t the only automaker to have a terrible first quarter as Ford has revealed their overall sales dropped 8.8% to 457,315 units. That’s a sizable decline of 43,976 vehicles and the drop can largely be attributed to the automaker’s own actions.
The popular Escape and Lincoln Corsair went out of production last year, and that weighed heavily on the results. Last year, 37,357 Escapes were sold in Q1 while Lincoln moved 6,240 Corsairs. That’s a combined total of 43,597, but the company only sold 17,742 models this time around as inventories are starting to dry up.
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It’s also worth noting that Escape shoppers don’t seem to be switching over to the similar Bronco Sport. While that model saw sales climb 5%, it only attracted 1,658 additional customers.
Speaking of zombies, F-150 Lightning sales plunged 71.3% as dealers are trying to offload the recently axed pickup. While a decline is to be expected for a model that’s no longer in production, Ford has to be alarmed that F-Series sales plunged 16% as customers only snapped up 159,901 trucks in Q1.
Even the affordable Maverick, which offers a hybrid variant, underperformed. Sales dropped 10.9% to 33,861 units.
That brings us to the big loser, which was the Mustang Mach-E. Following the elimination of the federal tax credit, deliveries plunged 60.4% to a mere 4,600 vehicles. The E-Transit saw an even steeper decline of 94.7% as the company only sold 200 of them in the past three months.
On the flip side, the redesigned Expedition continues to be popular as sales jumped 30.2%. The Explorer posted a similar gain of 29.7%, while the Ranger saw a 19.2% increase. More interestingly, the Mustang was up 50.1% as dealers sold an additional 4,697 pony cars.
2026 Ford Q1 US Sales
Lincoln Holds Steady
While overall Ford sales were down 9.2%, Lincoln held relatively steady as they were only down 0.5%. Besides the expected Corsair drop, the Chinese-built Nautilus saw an 11.4% decline, but remains their best-selling vehicle.
These drops were largely offset by a 31.4% surge in Aviator sales. The redesigned Navigator also climbed 6.5% to 4,322 units.
2026 Lincoln Q1 US Sales
What Ford Is Saying
Despite the declines, Ford tried to put a positive spin on things as they noted a “strategic shift toward high-margin SUVs like Expedition and Explorer.” The company also said their retail market share likely climbed 0.2% to 11.6%.
The Blue Oval went on to note the Bronco Sport is off to a record start, while off-road models and trims continue to be popular. That being said, the company acknowledged a “changing industry,” although they also tried to downplay the disappointing results by saying a “particularly strong industry performance in March 2025” makes for a “difficult” year-to-year comparison.
