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NUMBERS
Manufacturers' sales figures for the van market are often contradictory, and with good reason. With no real definition of what a van is, they can — and do — twist the numbers to suit themselves.
• 'Number one vehicle in Europe', the manufacturer's advertising copy reads, but just how accurate are those figures? Where do they come from — and can we believe them?
As Europe moves towards harmonisation, there is considerable cachet in claiming big European market shares for vehicle manufacturers. Having a sales success in the whole of Europe lends considerable authority to a manufacturer's claims, and it might even influence sales.
Advertising those sales figures has become increasingly popular in the last year, but some manufacturers are equally concerned about the spurious nature of some of the claims.
The first problem arises with the definition of "sales". The generally-accepted measure in the UK is the number of vehicles registered in a year, but this is not always a gauge of vehicle sales. Ford looks at both sales and registrations of its vehicles, and there are some large discrepancies. Ford Transit sales for Europe in 1988 were 136,972, but the registration figures were only 135,369. So where did those 1,603 vehicles come from? The sales of Ford Escort vans for the same period also were less than the total registrations, so what happened to the 415 Escorts that were registered, but never sold?
The explanation lies in a number of ways that vehicles can disappear without trace, without actually being officially registered. Apart from dealer vehicles the best example of this phenomenon is the bodybuilder bank stocks, which are held by the bodybuilders before they are sold, but owned by the manufacturer. Not all bodybuilders occupy such a favoured position with manufacturers, so they buy vehicles before fitting them with bodies and selling them. If either of these sorts of stocks are changing at the turn of the year, then the sales against registrations figures can be thrown out.
Military and off-road vehicles are never registered, so even though they are sold, they will not appear on the registration figures for a manufacturer. Leyland Daf Vans do not include their military sales figures in their claims, but some manufacturers do.
Some customers will buy a large number of vehicles to hold in stock until they are needed. British Rail may at any time hold as many as 50 unregistered chassiscabs awaiting bodies. There is also the problem of vehicles that have been ordered and paid for at the end of the year, but are not delivered until the beginning of the following year.
Lastly, there are vehicles that were previously unregistered coming onto the market. A classic case of this are the vehicles owned by US military personnel in Europe. Bought in America, the vehicles are brought to Europe and then sold on the open market, which distorts the figures.
SALES FIGURES
So the sales figures may not tie in with the registrations, which gives an inaccurate view of the total market and of a company's position within it. But what exactly is that market? Which countries (and vehicles) are included in it?
Definitions are always difficult, and the van market is fraught with problems for those seeking to define it. Passenger cars without rear seats qualify as vans in certain markets, but not in others. Volkswagen, for instance, classes all Golf and Polo vans as cars, while Renault and Fiat, among others, take special care to do the opposite.
Another quirk in the definition game is the minibus market, which one manufacturer has described as "a complete and utter can of worms . . . hopelessly inaccurate and definitely understated". Panel vaniS can be sold and registered as panel vans, but then be converted into minibuses. Some minibuses are counted as cars, and some as vans. Examples of problem vehicles include the Renault Espace, the five-seater Bedford Rascal personnel carriers, and any "combi" vans with fewer than nine seats.
Some vehicles are sold in Europe but not in the UK. Ford has the Econovan it produces with Mazda, and the estatebased Sierra van. Fiat has the Talento 1500 van that sold 1,500 units in 1988. General Motors sells all sorts of strange light commercial vehicles in Europe, and there are more from Citroen, Peugeot, and others. Manufacturers tend not to include vehicles like these when talking of Europe's market in the UK, and leave them in when talking about European markets when in Europe.
Even defining the manufacturer is difficult with certain manufacturers. In Europe, General Motors sells Isuzu, General Motors, Bedford, Vauxhall, Chevrolet and Opel. Lump them all together and its market share looks quite formidable. Thankfully the individual marques are singled out when looking at market share.
Defining the extent of Europe can be equally fraught, as countries are excluded or included on the basis of individual companies' marketing strategies. Ford divides Europe into main markets: Germany and the UK are considered separately, but then there is Northern European Sales Organisation, and Southern ESO. Not included in the figures are Greece, Iceland, Turkey and the Canary Islands. Fiat could not give us a definition of Europe, and Volkswagen stated it was "all the main markets". Renault says it is all the Scandinavian countries, and the EEC. Does this include Switzerland or Greece? It can be a serious problem, as some manufacturers sell more vehicles in certain markets. Citroens, for example, sell well in Spain (they're built there too) so the exclusion of that country would adversely affect its sales figures.
Until these problems are sorted out it would be wise to take any figures produced by manufacturers with a pinch of salt. They will merely point out the more popular vehicles in Europe, but not the most popular. It seems to be a case of lies, damned lies, and van statistics. 111 Andrew English