Boom Boom says 1988
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• Commercial Vehicle registrations hit a record 356,783 last year — up 14% on 1987, says the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.
Imports accounted for nearly 40% of the market.
Iveco Ford led the truck league all year to close with 16,506 registrations (24.3% of the market). IIard on its heels came Leyland Oaf with 22.5% (15,264) and Mercedez-Benz with a stable 15.2% (10,296).
Fourth was Volvo with 10.1% (6,843), ahead of Renault Truck Industries with 6.8% (4,639) — down 8.7% from 1987. ERF took a creditable sixth place with 5.5% (3,740), followed by Scania with 4.6% (3,150).
MAN Volkswagen fell back slightly to a 4% share with 2,725 registrations, but Seddon Atkinson held steady at 3.3% (2,234) followed by Foden, with 2.2% (1,503) — more than double its 1987 total.
The PSV market jumped by 33.5% in 1988. Leyland Buses continued its strong lead with 29.3% of the market (779 registrations), followed by parent company Volvo with 22.3%. This gives Volvo a dominant 51.6% of the market. MetroCarmel' Weymann, which is currently up for sale, took 21.5% (570), Ford still dominates the medium van market, taking 42% of the sector with 62,994 registrations. Leyland Oaf has dropped back slightly to 11.4% (17,146). Most truck producers expect sales to dip slightly to around the 66,000 mark in 1989. 1=1 Scania (Great Britain) had a record year in 1988, selling 3,150 trucks and 135 PSV chassis in the UK. But according to managing director Anders Astrom. "While this is good news, the extra demand on the factory, added to the lost production (due to a threeweek labour dispute earlier in '88) has caused customers to have to wait for their trucks, and this has cost us some loss of market share". He anticipates between 3,500 and 3,900 deliveries this year, 1998.
Iveco Ford also finished the year with record sales production figures, with 16,506 units over 3.5 tonnes. This was 24.3% over 1987 (3,231 vehicles) and put Iveco Ford 1.8% ahead of second-placed Leyland Daf in the truck sales league.