In March 2010, Ford sold 68,630 Fiestas, representing a 25.8 percent increase over March 2009 and 11,785 units more than Volkswagen’s Golf, which ranked second. The Fiesta also overtook the Golf in the first quarter of 2010, with 140,496 units sold in Europe (+21.7%), next to the Golf’s 135,048 units (+10.4%).
"Fiesta simply outpaced VW Golf, with its move to pole position particularly due to its strong March sales in the UK (+14.7%) and Italy (+87%) where 57% of all Fiestas sold (11,251) were LPG-powered," said JATO Dynamics in a press release.
“Fiesta has been closing the gap to Golf through 2010 and there are a number of factors behind this. The buoyant sales markets so far this year are those where Fiesta is popular and are also scrappage-influenced markets, driving purchase of small cars”, said David Di Girolamo, head of JATO Consult, quoted by the Automotive News.
“The last time Fiesta was ahead of Golf in European sales was in March 2009, so it remains to be seen whether it can hold top position this time round”, added Di Girolamo. Small cars dominated the top five, the third best sold car in Europe being the Renault Clio, followed by the Opel / Vauxhall Corsa and the Peugeot 207.
As well as securing the top spot with the Fiesta, Ford also managed to finish first in the March brand chart, with 1,818 sales more than Volkswagen, whilst also closing up the year-to-date gap to its German rival which topped the Q1 charts with 372,205 units (+7.8%).
Google News