Five Hundred, Freestyle, Montego Gain Share, Attract New Customers to the Showroom

- Sales of Ford's Chicago-built products have shown a steady increase in segment share since launch. - Conquest customers account for a large percentage of all sales, bringing new customers into the Ford and Lincoln Mercury showrooms. - Highlights of early sales include a rich mix of high-series models and all-wheel drive, zero daily rental sales, a high percentage of retail sales and no customer cash rebates -- pointing to solid growth potential.

DEARBORN, Mich., Feb. 8 -- Without any customer cash incentives, the 2005 Ford Five Hundred, Freestyle and Mercury Montego are gaining share at the expense of their full-size car competitors. In January, a month when industry sales were down considerably from the previous month, all three models posted significantly better performance than key competitors.

Sales of the Chicago-built products were up 5 percent in January, while sales of key competitors were down between 13 and 48 percent. In addition, each product showed significant gains in segment share while bringing new customers to the Ford and Mercury showrooms.

"By every measure of sales performance, the Freestyle, Five Hundred and Montego are steadily gaining a foothold in their segments," says Earl Hesterberg, group vice president, Marketing, Sales & Service. "There is no truer measure of success than segment share, and all three models have shown steady progress since launch."

Segment Share Expands

The Ford Five Hundred, Freestyle and the Mercury Montego have already made inroads into the full-size passenger car and crossover utility segments after only four months on the market. Each product has delivered increasing segment share, which is an important indicator of market performance.

                     Five Hundred     Freestyle    Montego
   October               3.6%            3.6%        1.0%
   November              6.8%            5.9%        1.3%
   December              5.8%            5.5%        1.1%
   January               7.2%            9.4%        1.8%

  Sales Show Solid Momentum

Sales of the Chicago-built products continue to meet the company's planning forecasts, showing solid momentum month-to-month versus key competition. This performance has been achieved without the use of customer cash rebates -- a key differentiator between Five Hundred, Freestyle and Montego and their facing competition.

                     Five Hundred     Freestyle     Montego
   October               3,102          1,880          805
   November              5,274          3,104        1,017
   December              5,730          3,525        1,152
   January               5,401          4,158        1,362
          Totals:       19,507         12,667        4,336

  Encouraging Fundamentals

More than 40 percent of the customers who have purchased a Five Hundred or Freestyle and more than 20 percent who have bought a Montego have come from a brand outside the Ford Motor Company family. This high conquest rate is bringing new customers into the Ford and Mercury showrooms and is increasing awareness of Ford products among import buyers.

In addition, a rich mix of high-series models and options like all-wheel drive coupled with no customer cash rebates are driving higher than anticipated transaction prices on all three models.

These factors have been aided by a high retail sales mix approaching 90 percent as well as zero daily rental sales. Higher than expected lease percentages have been driven by very competitive residual values and low lease payments.

                               Five Hundred     Freestyle      Montego
   Avg. Customer Age                 55            48            63
   Percentage Female                 34%           34%           29%
   Conquest Percentage               44%           42%           20%

   Percentage Mix by series          21% SE        22% SE        27% Luxury
                                     38% SEL       47% SEL       73% Premier
                                     41% Limited   31% Limited   -----------

   Percentage all-wheel drive        23%           55%           34%
   Lease as a percentage of sales    19%           30%           28%

  Safer By Design

The Five Hundred, Freestyle and Montego received the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) top five-star crash-test rating for front- and side-impacts -- one of the only 2005 model passenger cars tested to achieve this performance without the optional side air bags.

A two- or three-row Safety Canopy(TM) side air bag system with rollover sensor is available and provides additional protection not only in certain side collisions, but in rollover events as well.

"It's a true testament to these products' safety engineering that they can achieve NHTSA's top crash score without the optional side air bags," says Steve Lyons, Ford Division president. "While we recommend our Safety Canopy(TM) side curtain air bag system to any customer looking for an extra measure of protection, it is a tremendous accomplishment that the standard product achieves such a high level of protection. This provides real peace of mind for customers shopping for a safe, stylish and capable family car."

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