Ford Motor Company has been struggling to stay competitive in the automotive market for many years now. One can trace their decline back to a corresponding rise for General Motors. For the first time, though, since 1998, Ford Motor Company is beating General Motors in monthly sales.

Ford deliveries jumped 43 percent to 142,285 vehicles compared with 141,951 for GM. The Dearborn, Michigan-based company hadn’t topped GM in domestic sales since a strike idled the biggest U.S. automaker almost 12 years ago, and the last time before that was during a 1970 walkout, based on Ford data.

Ford beating GM for only the third time since 1970 is pretty sad. Especially when we consider the fact that the 1970 victory was caused by a GM walkout and this month was likely the result of backlash against GM being taken over by the U.S. Treasury. GM will need to combat this newest story and frame it not as a trend, but as an anomaly. A competent corporate brand reputation campaign could help.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-02/ford-u-s-sales-win-is-first-since-1998-as-gm-shuffles-leaders.html