This February, the Ford Focus has outsold its main domestic rival, the Chevrolet Cruze. Overall, sales are a positive for any automaker, so this is overall good news for Ford and its Focus, especially considering that the Cruze won the sales battle all through 2011 plus the first month of this year. Year-over-year, Ford is boasting of a 115 per cent increase in its Focus sales.

However, as you peel back the surface figures, you will see that all is not as rosy as it may first appear. The main problem is fleet sales. They hurt resale value and slice into margins. Last year, Focus had slightly higher fleet sales than did the Cruze . But, since the Cruze had a much more robust year of retail sales, the Chevy car had a healthier retail-to-fleet sales ratio. Focus’s ratio has in fact worsened, going from 1.6 per cent of all sales being fleet sales in February 2011, to nearer to 20 per cent this February. There are even some reports that Ford Focus fleet sales are around 40 per cent.

The danger is that as more and more Focuses make their way into fleets, fewer and fewer consumers will view these vehicles as something they’d want to purchase.