With the recent turmoil facing Toyota, the market pundits have been guessing which manufacturer will reap the benefits of Toyota’s blunders. That manufacturer appears to be Ford(F). Ford has been on a roll ever since the other two domestics declared bankruptcy. CEO Mulally appears to have ushered in a new era at Ford. An era marked by higher quality standards and much less leverage on the Balance Sheet. His efforts have been applauded by Wall Street. Ford’s share price has steadily moved up since the S&P’s March lows.

With yesterday’s release of February’s sales numbers, Ford has even more to celebrate. For the first time since 1998, Ford beat GM in sales. According to Bloomberg, “Ford reported a 43 percent increase in sales to 142,285 in February. GM reported sales of 141,951 units, a 12 percent gain.” Industry wide, February sales ran at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 10.4 million, according to Autodata.

It is still too early to call one month’s results a trend. However, all news out of Ford seems to be positive, while all news out of GM (Saab, Hummer, etc) appears to be negative. Due to the enormous size of these companies, it is very difficult to change the climate and direction of the company quickly. It is the equivalent of turning a speed boat versus turning the Titanic. Therefore, these trends tend to play out over a long period of time. With this in mind I continue to look for good things from Mr Mulally and Ford.