P100 treks up market
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JUST two months after the controversial launch of its South African-built P100, Ford has taken a commanding lead in pick-up truck sales in the UK.
The Cortina-based P100 has sold at a faster rate since its July launch than Mazda's truck, the previous market leader, has managed in the first eight months of the year.
The 65 per cent share of the market that the P100 has en joyed has "mildly surprised" officials at Ford, a spokesman told CM.
A total of 1,105 units were sold last month, and 1,384 since the launch. Mazda and the main Japanese companies could only manage a combined total of 437 in August.
The Japanese figure includes an lsuzu-Bedford model, whose sales fell dramatically to eight last month. Bedford blamed this fall on supply difficulties.
Many Japanese vehicles are subject to an 11 per cent "prudent" marketing agreement which came into being last autumn. The Ford spokesman said that its pick-up sales lead was partly caused by this restraint.
Bedford's commercial vehicle market penetration in August was the highest for three years, placing it second behind Ford, with a market share of 17.1 per cent.