BRENTWOOD, England – UK market leader Ford increased its car sales advantage over rivals in an almost static January market.
Ford's top-selling car range secured 15.6 per cent of the January market, up 0.3 percentage points compared with January 2011, while Ford commercial vehicles (CVs) maintained overall leadership of the CV market.
Official figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers’ and Traders show that total UK car sales last month were up 0.03 per cent to 128,853 units, compared with January 2011. Ford car sales of 20,061 were up 2.0 per cent, from 19,657 in January last year.
Significantly, Ford's retail car market share in January was 14.6 per cent, 1.5 percentage points up from the same month in 2011. Ford increased its retail car sales lead over its nearest rival by 69 per cent, from 2,268 to 3,843, and it increased its total car sales lead 83 per cent, from 4,346 to 7,951.
Sales of the UK’s best-selling Fiesta range were 7,824 - up from 5,844 in January 2011. Fiesta also increased its share of car sales from 4.5 per cent to 6.1 per cent. There were also increases in sales and share for the Ka, the C-MAX range and the Mondeo.
UK commercial vehicle sales were down 7.6 per cent, compared with January 2011. The Light CV and Medium CV segments in which Ford competes were down 58.9 and 9.9 per cent, respectively. Sales of Ford commercials in January were down from 4,675 to 3,845, compared with the same month last year.
Ford medium commercials, headed by the industry-leading Transit, accounted for around one-in-four sales in that segment in January. Ford’s share of MCV sales was 24.3 per cent, down from 27.3 per cent in January 2011. Ford’s share of light commercial sales was 48.7 per cent, up from 21.9 per cent in January 2011.