Ford sales gain on Holden

In the blue corner, Ford is getting to within a whisker of Holden in the red corner in the passenger car sales race. Last month Ford came to within 1 per cent of Holden's share of vehicle sales. Ford had 11.2 per cent of the May market versus 12.2 per cent for Holden.

Holden is still ahead in year-to-date terms with a total vehicle share of 12.5 per cent against Ford's 10.3 per cent but the individual model count shows the gap is closing.

Sales of the tradies' favourite, the Falcon and Holden utes, are with 0.1 per cent of each other this year. The Falcon ute has a 17.2 per cent market share and the Commodore ute a 17.1 share.

In overall terms Ford has experienced a modest gain in passenger car market share, up from 9.5 per cent last year to 10.5 per cent this year. By comparison, Holden's passenger share has remained relatively stagnant since last year but the Red Lion brand is still ahead by 3.9 per cent.

Ford is soon to ramp up its marketing message by launching a Fiesta and Focus assault on its toughest market, Sydney, to go head to head against Toyota.

"Sydney remains our toughest market," Burela says.

At the other end of the Ford scale Burela says the FG Falcon, after a slow sales start at launch last year, is gradually winning over large car buyers.

In overall terms both sedan and ute sales are still down 2 per cent and 14 per cent, but importantly Falcon, along with the VE Commodore, is improving its large car market share. The Falcon's share of the large car sales pie has increased this year to 31 per cent against 25 per cent for the same period last year. The Commodore's share has increased from 42 per cent to 47 per cent.

Burela says the FG is also bringing younger buyers to the brand. The average age of a Falcon owner has also come down from 55 to between 35 and 45. Although it is still too early to forecast full-blown large car recovery, Burela believes the signs are good.

A key indicator for Falcon's climb back into buyers' minds is that Ford is selling a richer, more profitable, mix of high-end FG Falcons than the previous model.

The XR sports models are the most popular, accounting for more than 50 per cent of FG sales, followed by the luxury G-Series cars, with 43 per cent and the XT accounting for 4.5 per cent. In the previous Falcon the XT was by far the most popular car, accounting for 60 per cent of sales.

With Holden's new VF Commodore around the corner, Ford plans to respond with a range of initiatives to maintain its FG sales momentum by promoting the car's economy and technology.