Coming off strong results last January, Ford Motor Company’s total U.S. sales of 173,723 vehicles declined 3 percent last month versus a year ago. Here to look behind the numbers is Ford Sales Analyst Eric Merkle.

Looks like January was a big month for SUVs and vans, but we still saw a 3 percent sales decline -- why?

"Our sales declined modestly by 3 percent,  which was consistent, really, with the overall industry.  But what’s more important is we also saw that our average transaction prices grew at almost three times the rate of the overall industry -- so our sales were consistent with the overall industry, but our average transaction prices were growing at a much healthier pace.” :21 sec.

Transit sales increased 51 percent, driving Ford van sales to their best January since 1985.

"It was a tremendous month for vans and that really  bodes well when we start taking a look at the commercial aspect of vans and what it means for business spending and the overall health of the economy.” :11 sec.

Lincoln posted January sales up 8 percent on strong demand for the all-new Lincoln MKX.

"What’s really interesting about that, though, is that Lincoln -- the all-new MKX -- was up 51 percent, which really drove Lincoln, pushed Lincoln SUV sales to their best January start since 2001, so it’s been a long time since we’ve seen Lincoln SUV numbers like that.” :17 sec.

Merkle is encouraged by the overall sales outlook, especially with the SUV sales, which includes the all-new Ford Edge.

“Ford brand SUVs: we had our strongest start since 2004.  The new Edge is really coming to its own for us     -- it was up 26 percent.  And even places like  Boston, which is a really big market -- the Northeast is a big market for SUVs -- we saw Edge up 45 percent, so one of our newest products doing very well for us.” :23 sec.