The light commercial market
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• The light CV market showed signs of further fragmentation In 2000, with smaller manufacturers increasing their market share at the expense of once-dominant Ford.
To be fair, Ford maintained its sales volume in the 1.8-3.5tonne sector, selling an impressive 51,783 Transits despite the introduction of front-wheel-drive variants late in the year. But smaller players like Citroen, Fiat, Vauxhall and Toyota all recorded substantial gains in this sector. LEIV's imaginative marketing and attractive deals paid dividends, with the Birmingham firm retaining third place behind Mercedes-Benz with 15,015 sales — an increase of 6.5%.
Iveco's Daily did well too, selling more than 4,700 in the upto-3,500kg sector; an increase of 42% over 1999. iVeCO Ford is planning to open more sales and service points for vans, under the auspices of existing dealers.
Citroen did exceptionally well in both the van sectors, with sales up by 38.6% from 1.8-3.5 tonnes and up 21.4% in the sub-1.8-tonne market. Overall sales put it ahead of Volkswagen. The revised Relay van achieved an impressive 64% jump in sales, but the most extraordinary result came from the ageing C15 Champ: 2,352 were sold, which is an increase of almost 72%.
Ford remains the market leader below 1,800kg, but a 7% drop in sales has left Vauxhall snapping at Its heels.
The latest generation of well-equipped high-cube vans is now available with side doors (the Renault Kangoo, Citroen Berlingo and Peugeot Partner, for instance) and these are hitting the traditional microvan hard: Daihatsu's sales were down by almost 38%.