The cream comes to the top as Ford sales are up on 2011
They are not the market leader for nothing (as they say) but a strong and extremely desirable product range, plus plenty of dealership representation has seen Ford’s market share this year increase over 2011. May 2012 saw Ford car sales up by 7% whilst year to date, light commercial sales rocketed by 28.2% showing again that businesses continue to spend their money where they know they are going to get the job done.
Having said all that, I am going to have a “winge”, because I just wonder how much more Ford could have achieved if it were possible to get hold of the vehicles more easily? It’s been our experience that in many cases, we just couldn’t get a vehicle off the shelf or out of Fords holding compound, leaving us placing vehicles on factory order ranging from anything from 6 weeks to an unbelievable 9 months in the case of a Wildtrak Ranger and I kind of wonder what this says about the Ford product, when customers are prepared to wait if need be to get the right vehicle, rather than an off the shelf alternative from another maker, but then my mum told me that “everything good was worth waiting for”.
We appreciate that it’s expensive for a dealer to hold large levels of stock, but the manufacturers like Ford, mainly have holding compounds that dealers can draw from, but in many cases, even these don’t seem to hold the stuff our customers want and yes, whilst it might just be down to colour, or perhaps not having a particular option you fancy, it can be annoying.
The Ford Fiesta is still number one seller in the UK market and Mondeo, Galaxy & S-Max all saw big increases in the numbers supplied in 2012 over 2011, whilst medium sector commercials, led by the superb Transit, accounted for 31.3% of all sales in that segment, and so in every sector drivers are voting with their cheque books.
There is no doubt that the Ford product range is the best it’s ever been and frankly, the coverage offered by the Ford UK dealer network is unmatched. So, it’s a massive success for Ford so far in 2012 and well done, but in fact, its all down to those buyers who went through the same decision making process as you will, have ended up choosing Ford.
I shouldn’t of course, just moan at Ford for not having certain product waiting on the shelf, because there isn’t a manufacturer we deal with that does not have availability problems and even for some of the least popular brands, it can take weeks and weeks to get a vehicle, but I guess that’s probably for different reasons, because for Ford, they are just victims of their own success (but if you know the Ford product, would you risk buying something else?).
So, our message to you is that once you’ve decided to make a change, or perhaps get an additional vehicle, that there are plenty of vehicles out there and you should get in touch with your leasing company (or if you are one of those old fashioned companies who still purchase or use HP) that you get yourself down to your local dealer and get your name on something.
