Ford Motor Co. hung on to its perch as the No. 3 U.S. automaker by volume, outselling the Hyundai Motor Group by 1,195 vehicles in the th...

Ford Motor Co. hung on to its perch as the No. 3 U.S. automaker by volume, outselling the Hyundai Motor Group by 1,195 vehicles in the third quarter behind strong demand for pickups and utilities, even as its light-vehicle sales fell 6.6 percent.

F-Series sales declined 1.9 percent in the quarter, but production rose 4.5 percent as Ford recovers from fires last year at an aluminum supplier that cut F-150 output by tens of thousands, the automaker said. F-Series sales closed the quarter strong, with a 2.4 percent gain in September, Ford said.

The F-Series had the highest retail share and revenue in the quarter among full-line pickups, as well as the lowest average incentives, Ford said.

The automaker expects continued growth. Ford CEO Jim Farley on Sept. 30 said he expects October will be the F-150’s highest production month so far this year and that the company now has “fully recovered” from the Novelis aluminum issue.

“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,” Rob Kaffl, Ford’s executive director of sales, told reporters.

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