Ford got off to a flying start with new ‘132’ plate car registrations, the first ever mid-year number-plate change. The first 10 day figures released by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI ) show that Ford is the leading brand in the ‘132’ July car market with 1,042 registrations, ahead of Hyundai and VW (637 and 604 respectively ).
The figures show that the overall market is up by almost 650 per cent with 5,555 vehicles registered versus 856 for the same period in 2012.
In addition to having the highest number of registrations in the market, Ford says that it also has three models in the top 10 so far for July, with Focus and Fiesta taking the number one and two spots; The Nissan Qashqai was third, Volkswagen Golf ran fourth, the Skoda Octavia was fifth, and Ford's Mondeo claimed sixth place in the overall sales.
“We put a lot of work into coming up with some good value propositions for the 132 market and it is heartening to see the positive response of our customers,” said Eddie Murphy, chairman and managing director of Ford Ireland. “The challenge for ourselves will now be to sustain this momentum into the coming months.”
The van market also witnessed a considerable increase with 569 units registered, up from 211 for the same period last year. Ford was also top of the van sales chart with 135 registrations.
