FORD ENDS THE DECADE OUTPACING RIVALS AND INCREASING MARKET SHARE

BRENTWOOD, Essex, 7 January, 2010 – Ford’s top selling vehicle range secured almost 17 per cent of the UK’s total 2009 market for the blue oval, making one in six new vehicles a Ford. Other highlights of the official full-year 2009 figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders include:

Number one UK car brand for 33rd successive year.
Ford share of the total (car and CV) market up from 16.3 in 2008 to 16.7 per cent for 2009.
Total Ford sales to retail customers up by over 9,000 compared with 2008.
Ford car share rose 0.8 points to 15.9 per cent compared with 2008.
Ford car sales to retail customers up 5,500 compared with 2008.
Ford commercial vehicles have been the UK’s favourite for 45 years.
1-2 for Ford Fiesta and Focus in the car sales charts.
45 years as number one for Ford Transit, which has enjoyed market leadership its entire lifetime.
Ford light commercial share up by 4.5 per cent and total CV share up by 0.8 percentage points compared with 2008.
Ford sold 316,369 cars in the UK last year during a challenging trading period which saw the Government introduce its vehicle scrappage scheme mid year. Ford took over 35,200 scrappage orders in 2009, helping to maintain car registrations to within two per cent of its 2008 total.

Ford car sales to retail customers were up over 9,000 in 2009, compared with 2008, with Ford Fiesta recording an additional 22,300 sales (fleet and retail) during the year.

In early 2009 Ford Fiesta took over the top UK sales position from the Ford Focus and the pair retained first and second in the sales charts through to the end of the year. The economical Ford Fiesta led Ford sales of cars with emissions under 120g CO2/km, which doubled for the blue oval during 2009 versus the prior year. Ford also offers three sub 100g CO2 vehicles in its Ford Focus, Ford Fiesta and Fiesta Van ECOnetic models.

Ford Transit, launched in 1965, has led the commercial vehicle sector ever since. The iconic Transit helped grow Ford’s 2009 CV registrations to 24.4 per cent – up from 23.6 per cent the prior year.

In a particularly challenging 2009 CV market, Ford light commercials raised their share of the segment by 4.5 percentage points to 26.3 per cent, compared with 2008.

For December 2009, both Ford car and total CV sales were up compared with December 2008. Car sales were up by 3,544 to 21,732 and CV sales were up by 595 to 3,983. During December most Ford car models also saw increased sales compared with the same month in 2008 with Focus up by 1,778 to 7,339, for example.

Nigel Sharp, Ford Britain managing director, said: “Ford’s strong 2009 sales performance underlined once again the market appeal of the company’s best ever product line up. 2010 is set to be another year of tough trading but Ford will continue to benefit from a flow of new models, including S-MAX, Galaxy and
C-MAX, and the unrivalled strength of its dealer network.

“Ford Fiesta continued collecting awards through the year after kicking off 2008 as Car of the Year according to What Car?. Autotrader named the Ford Focus their Car of the Decade.”