In contrast to a string of news reporting poor sales figures and overall company peformance in North America, Kiwis are more willing to “Buy American” than Americans themselves. In fact, the current pulse in the enthusiast market suggests New Zealand consumers are more willing to buy Ford than a good number of American blue oval hobbyists.
Though a few weeks old, FordMuscle discovered this bit of news from www.car.co.nz
Falcon and Focus lead August’s New Zealand vehicle sales.
Ford dominated passenger vehicle sales in New Zealand in August capturing overall new vehicle market leadership and passenger market leadership – the Ford Falcon (558 units) and Focus (369 units) were the two most popular vehicles in the country.
It was the second month in a row that Falcon was the number one selling car in New Zealand and sales of 558 units is the second highest monthly individual car result in New Zealand this year.
“The Ford Falcon is an exceptional family car that delivers outstanding performance, refinement, fuel economy and safety,” said Richard Matheson, Managing Director Ford New Zealand.
“August was a strong month for all passenger vehicles – Fiesta (74 units) recorded its equal highest monthly result this year, Mondeo (125 units) was third in its segment and Territory (158 units) improved its segment share 1.5 percentage points year-on-year.”
Ford ended August with a passenger market share of 19.8%, 435 units ahead of its nearest rival which bought Ford within 33 units year-to-date of the number one position in the passenger segment.
“Our light commercial sales were also strong – we captured 17.1% of the light commercial truck segment securing second place in year-to-date.”
“This overall result was Ford’s highest volume and highest total share year-to-date – this just demonstrates out ability to bring the best Ford products from around the world to New Zealand,” said Matheson.
For more information, see the Ford of New Zealand offical website.
how about a new mercury comet like in 1965
By jc. October 23rd, 2006 at 4:45 pmits called politics here thats why they dont ship those hot rods here and our so called government bunch of political bullshit
By jett lee. September 30th, 2006 at 4:19 amI’ve been whining about ford of australia building some badass cars and putting engines in like the boss 290 pumping out 385 naturally aspirated horsepower. We have to pop a blower on our to make that with an 03-04 cobra. Why can’t ford just start shipping some good cars from australia, or just build them here. We also get a crap focus and europe gets turbocharged or 5 cylinder volvo powered cars. Why cant we get a rally edition focus to spank all those Sti’s and evos.
By 19mach69. September 28th, 2006 at 4:30 amI notice Japanese are shipping in small cars into America and they are selling. I get the impression that US small cars made in other countries aren’t getting there such as the Astra, Euro Focus etc. Is that correct? They could even take them upmarket with all the bells and whistles, somewhat like the Mini.
By RayCee. September 26th, 2006 at 4:36 pmAmen. The only vehicles that Ford makes that actual sell are the Mustang, F-Series (though I think not offering stick w/ the V8 in the F150 makes no sense), and their SUVs (which sales for them are slipping). Hopefully now w/ a new heirarchy the company may come back, or plunge further into the state they are in now. I would also like to add that even in Europe Fords are very popular. When I was in Croatia this past summer, it seemed that everyone was driving either Ford Focuses or Opel Astras (GM owned). Why is it so hard for them to realize that to go back to the top, they just need to get back into touch w/ their consumer base?
By bassman97. September 26th, 2006 at 8:01 amFord offers cars like the Falcon, Fairlane and killer performance vehicles in other countries. Then gives us the Fusion and 500 and wonders why domestic sells are so bad. Go look at the Aussie’s Ford web site and see what they get compared to what Ford dumps on us here in the states. If Ford would offer those vehicles here I bet they wouldn’t be cutting thousands of jobs and sueing small companies for cash. The only thing Ford really needs is a whole new marketing staff. The current people are totally out of touch with what American buyers want.
By Ed. September 26th, 2006 at 6:48 am