The quarter came down to inches
Ford held onto the No. 3 spot in U.S. auto sales by a whisker in the third quarter. The company posted 507,395 light-duty sales, a 6.6% decline from a year earlier, not counting its biggest heavy-duty trucks. Hyundai, counting its Hyundai, Kia and Genesis badges, landed at 506,200, a 5.4% increase. Both outperformed expectations after a Cox Automotive forecast last week predicted Hyundai would pass Ford for the first time.
Ford also played down how tight the finish looked, noting that Hyundai and Kia operate as separate brands in the U.S. even if they share a parent company.
What shaped Ford's numbers
It has been a choppy year for Ford. Production of its bread-and-butter F-Series was disrupted by two supplier fires last year that hurt output and sales, and comparisons are tougher after discontinuing vehicles such as the Ford Escape. Even so, Ford's U.S. sales chief Rob Kaffl said availability and sales for F-Series pickups, including the F-150, improved in the quarter. "Some of the headwinds we had early in the year are kind of behind us, and it's really setting us up for a really strong Q4 as we move in," he told reporters.
F-Series sales were down only 1.9% in Q3, while the discontinued F-150 Lightning fell 97.1%. The Ford brand slipped about 6%, and Lincoln dropped 18%. Through nine months, Ford still leads Hyundai by roughly 89,700 vehicles.
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The EV comedown and the scoreboard around it
Through September, Ford's EV sales were down 67.5% from a year ago, including about an 80% drop in Q3. The comparison is distorted by a record EV quarter last year, when a wave of buyers placed orders ahead of the Trump administration's decision that eliminated federal credits of as much as $7,500 toward buying an electric vehicle.
Elsewhere in the quarter, Tesla delivered 486,532 vehicles, topping expectations. Rivian beat delivery forecasts and reaffirmed its 2026 guidance. GM's Q3 sales fell 5.5%, while Toyota benefited from strong EV and hybrid demand.
What this means for your money
Ford kept the ranking, but the margin is now razor thin. Watch three things into Q4: how quickly F-Series inventories keep improving, whether EV comps normalize off last year's spike, and if Hyundai's momentum holds. Those are the levers likely to nudge the story next, and possibly a few stock charts alongside it.
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