Ford Sets Sales Record In Europe

Ford may be seeing its market share and sales decline in the United States but it does not mean that it is not doing well in other markets across the world. The Auto Channel recently reported that the automaker broke its record for sales in Europe last year.

The reason for this is the increased demand for the automaker's new line of stylish vehicles. The Ford Fiesta and the Ford Focus are the best selling vehicles for the automaker in Europe. Sales for the Focus increased to 496,600 in 2007. For the Fiesta, sales have reached 378,220. These two vehicles with their auto parts as reliable as tough radiators are expected to bring more customers to Ford's dealerships in Europe.

Stephen Odell, the vice president for marketing, sales, and service at Ford of Europe is obviously thrilled with their performance. "I am delighted with our performance in 2007," said Odell. "Including sales from our European Direct Markets, we sold close to 1.9 million vehicles last year. That's about 110,000 vehicles more than we sold in 2006. In 2006 we sold some 80,000 vehicles more than we did in 2005, so in the past two years we have added some 200,000 sales to our bottom-line."

"Selling over 100,000 more vehicles was a spectacular performance. Transit was up by 30,000 vehicles, Mondeo increased by 17,000 as we started to get full production of that model, S-MAX was up by 33,000 and Galaxy by more than 41 per cent to 10,000 units," he continued.

Odell also named the markets in Europe where they have seen significant growth saying: "Our share in France was up to 5 per cent, which is a great recovery for us. Products like the C-MAX did very well, as did S-MAX and Galaxy. We also had a great year in Italy, selling 23,900 vehicles more than in prior year and increasing our share. We also did very well in Spain, especially with Mondeo and Fiesta. Turkey sold over 100,000 units, despite a lower industry in the first eight months of the year."