5:05 pm, October 24, 2008
SMALL cars are seeing Ford Retail through the worst of the economic downturn.
Last month, the Ford-owned, 59-strong group sold 5086 new cars – that’s 4.7 per cent down on 2007, compared to the overall national decrease of over 21 per cent.
Chief executive Chris Hayden said: ‘We have seen a significant increase in small car sales as many customers are downsizing to reduce their motoring costs.’
Ford’s well placed to capitalise on this success. ‘With the availability of the new Fiesta, and the new Ka coming on stream in January, we expect to see more of this activity.’
Indeed, the September figures are maybe more impressive when you consider the Fiesta’s been on runout, and the Ka is entering its rundown period. Dealers are expecting a boost in October, when the all-new Fiesta goes on sale.
We’ll thus be awaiting the October data in early November with keen interest…
