Another Year Of Sales Successes For Ford

The year 2003 saw Ford of Britain celebrate another series of sales successes including:

• New car market leader for the 27th successive year
• Medium commercial vehicle market leader, with Transit, for 38th consecutive year
• Ford Focus was Britain's best-selling car
• Three Ford models in the Top 10 - Focus, Fiesta (4th) and Mondeo (10th)
• Overall market leader in the diesel car sector
• Ford Mondeo was Britain's best-selling diesel car
• Ford Focus was the no.1 choice in the fleet car sector
• Ford Transit led the medium commercial vehicle sector with 57,811 sales, up 5 per cent on 2002
• Ford Ka clear leader in its segment
• Ford Galaxy consolidates position as best-selling MPV
• Ford Ranger sales increase by almost a quarter

"Not only was 2003 a record-breaking year for the industry, but it was also one of the most competitive," said Ford managing director, Paul Thomas. "Given the tough trading conditions, it is even more rewarding to retain our market leadership positions with Focus, Transit and Mondeo."

The Ford Ka increased its performance in the city car segment and ended the year with a 49 per cent market share and out-selling its nearest rival 3 to 1.

Leading the Ford charge in the small car market sector, the Ford Fiesta and Fusion saw a 2.5 per cent sales increase over 2002. In total almost 96,000 new Fiestas were registered in 2003 and just over 20,000 new Fusions.

Some 129,054 Ford Focus models were sold, placing it comfortably 32,000 sales ahead of its closest competitor.

In the last quarter of 2003 the Focus range was joined by the all-new Focus C-Max compact MPV.

The Ford Galaxy saw its sales rise by 7.5 per cent in the Multi Purpose Vehicle category, selling more than twice as many units as its nearest rival.

Another Ford star in the commercial vehicle market was the Ranger pickup, which saw its sales jump 23 per cent to a record 5,410 from 4,402 in 2002, its previous best ever year.