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Ford Drops Slightly in Europe

Ford's European sales levels managed to stay high, despite an overall industry fall on the Old Continent. Yet, the carmaker posted the first monthly decline in the industry this year, with a 5.3 percent drop in sales in its 19 main markets.

Ford sold 101,100 unit in the respective markets in April, some 21,000 lower than April 2009. Even the market share dropped for Ford, now being 1.1 percent lower than last year. Ford was the best selling brand in the UK and Hungary, and was also year-to-date market leader in Denmark, Ireland and Turkey.

"In April, we took a conscious decision not to follow the market, knowing that the expected decline in industry volumes after the ending of many of the scrappage schemes would likely prompt some players to increase even further their aggressive marketing incentives," Ingvar Sviggum, Vice President, Marketing, Sales and Service, Ford of Europe said in a statement.

"That's exactly what happened, and while we will remain competitive in the market, we will not devalue our brand or hurt our residual values just to chase volume or share. We therefore knew our market share would drop for the month, but we were coming off a very strong March and first quarter performance and we expect our share to recover as the market stabilizes in the second half of the year."

Sales were spearheaded by the Fiesta, with 172,600 units sold in the first four months of the year. So far, the car sold some 800,000 units around the world since its inception.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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