Ford has ridden incentives and sales straight to the top in 2025.
During the first six months of the year, Ford (F) was the hottest car company in America.
Earlier this year, Ford launched its “From America, For America” campaign to provide customers with employee pricing.
“Employee pricing for all was easy to understand and resonated with customers,” said Ford U.S. Sales Director Rob Kaffl.
Since then, Ford has offered other incentives to U.S. buyers, including July 4 sales and a 0-0-0 financing deal.
Earlier this month, Ford started offering Labor Day deals in key regions through the end of September.
“It’s really paid off for us in the last 60 days. You’ve seen a lot of the results in the market. Last month (May)…we actually posted a 14.7% share here in the U.S. That’s up 1.9 points of share on a year-over-year basis. A lot of times in this industry we fight for tenths of share, and to have a 1.9% increase year over year was very strong,” said Ford Blue and Model e President Andrew Frick.
Ford says its total sales rose in the second quarter at a rate about 7x that of the overall industry. The company says it was the top-selling brand in the U.S. during the first half of the year.
Image source: Pugliano/Getty Images
Ford brings incentives to riskier buyers with new program
Ford is expanding its incentive program this fall in order to move more F-150s, and the deals will be going to buyers with weaker credit histories.
Until the end of September, Ford will offer buyers with lower credit scores the same interest rates as those with excellent credit scores, according to a Wall Street Journal exclusive.
The Ford F-150, which costs from $39,000 to $80,000, is Ford’s top-selling vehicle.
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“We wanted to provide the opportunity to those with credit ratings that may not be perfect the opportunity to have the best rates available,” a Ford spokesman told the Journal while also saying that the program isn’t expected to continue beyond the end of September.
Subprime borrowers with FICO scores below 620 are less likely to make payments on time during an economic downturn, so their interest rates are often higher to account for that risk.
“Promotional rates do not factor into our credit decisions,” a spokesperson for Ford’s finance arm said. “We only finance customers we believe are creditworthy and have the capacity to pay. We have done these types of national programs in the past, extending a promotional rate to customers who meet our credit criteria.”
However, Ford is bucking a trend that has persisted in the automotive industry all year.
Consumers with good credit get better auto loan rates
A Cox Automotive study from summer 2025 showed that consumers with higher credit scores are getting better deals on their new purchases.
“It is highly likely that, with sales slowing, consumers will benefit from attractive financing offers for the rest of the summer, but the catch is that those offers are typically only available to well-qualified buyers,” said Cox Automotive Chief Economist Jonathan Smoke.
Cox’s data shows that only about 7% of consumers financing new vehicle purchases are locking in a 0% annual percentage rate.
Meanwhile, the average new auto loan rate is above 9%. Even consumers with “very good” credit scores, above 760, were getting 5.4% rates in July.
But that rate is still the lowest it has been since September 2022.
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