Ford Motor Company On Course For Another Market-Leading Year

Ford of Britain and its national network of dealers saw off the opposition in October, with 'blue oval' cars and commercial vehicles topping the sales charts in a very competitive month, according to figures just released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.

With just two full sales months remaining, Ford is now on course to achieve full year new car market leadership for 29 successive years and new commercial vehicle market leadership for an incredible 40 consecutive years - every full year since the Ford Transit was introduced.

October sales highlights for Ford included:

• Overall new car market leadership with 21,707 sales for a 14.2 per cent share
• Fleet car market leadership
• Commercial Vehicle market leadership
• Ford Focus was Britain's best-selling car
• Fleet market favourite was also the Ford Focus
• Ford Fiesta was the top-selling retail car
• Britain's best-selling diesel car was the Ford Focus, with Ford Mondeo second
• Ford medium commercials, lead by the Transit range, dominated their sales segment with 27.5 per cent share - the nearest competitor took less than 10 per cent
• The Ford Ka, Fiesta, Focus, Mondeo and Galaxy led their segments of the car market

"Competition in the marketplace remains fierce," explained Ford of Britain managing director Paul Thomas.

"With the introduction this month of the Focus ST to much critical acclaim and with the revised Fiesta and Fusion range models reaching dealer showrooms, we are signaling to our competitors that we have no intention of resting on our laurels," he added.