Truck sales are set to meet target
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SOCIETY of Motor Manufacturers and Traders forecasts of 56,000 trucks over 3.5 tonnes being registered this year look certain to be accurate.
Statistics just released by the SMMT show that 52,658 were registered in the first 11 months of this year, 4,275 of them last month. While the total for the year is up from 49,922, last month's figure is down from 4,982 in November 1984.
Sales of all classes of commercial vehicles totalled 270,546 by the end of November, 5.9 per cent up on 1984, with November sales 11.5 of one per cent down to "Y),611.
Despite its extra sales push in October, Ford's market share at the top of the over3.5-tonne sector has slipped again, down from 18.2 per cent last year to 17.6 per cent.
Leyland, in second place, is now running at .15.8 per cent (1984: 14.7 per cent), Mercedes-Benz is next with 11.6 per cent (1984: 9.5 per cent), then Bedford with 10.7 per
(1984: 8.9 per cent) and Volvo with 8.3 per cent (1984: 8.6 per cent).
1)al, ERF, Iveco, Scania, Seddon Atkinson and MANVW have all increased sales, while Foden and Hestair Denriis have sold fewer.
The fight for shares of the growing medium/heavy van market shows the strength of opposition facing Ford when it launches its new Transit.
The old model has clocked up 32.6 per cent of the 113,641 sales of vans in this category (1984: 34.6 per cent of 110,099) and is by far the best-selling van in this category. Registrations of the decreasingly popular P100 pickup take Ford's share of the market to 35.3 per cent (1984: 39.2 per cent).
In the first 11 months this year, Freight Rover boosted its share from 12.3 per cent to 13.8 per cent, Bedford with its Midi reversing a decline in sales is up from 11.5 per cent to 12.3 per cent, and irrepressible Renault is up from 6.2 per cent to 8.7 per cent and has overtaken VW.