Nigel Sharp: another year of challenges.

The motor industry is staging a minor rally but is not out of the woods yet.

In the current economic climate, the motor industry is all about unit sales and Ford grew its January car sales figures by almost 1,200 units, according to figures released today (5 February).

Best-sellers

Ford Fiesta and Ford Focus continued as the first and second-best sellers in the UK market. In third, fourth and fifth place respectively were Vauxhall Corsa, VW Polo and Vauxhall Astra.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders confirmed pole position for Ford after the first month of 2010 trading. The Blue Oval's 22,128 car sales in January were over 5% up on 12 months ago, keeping the company 6,122 cars ahead of its nearest rival.

Scrappage continuation

SMMT chief executive Paul Everitt said: ‘Scrappage continues to lift demand successfully and today’s announcement of a continuation of the scheme to the end of March will allow the maximum number of people to benefit from the budget that’s still available.’

However, the industry is by no means out of the woods yet with the outlook constrained and demand expected to fall 9% to 1.82 million units in the full year.

Everitt warned: ‘Industry expects another difficult year with the availability of finance, consumer confidence and sustaining demand post-scrappage, key to performance in the second half of the year, but signs of recovery in the fleet and business sectors are encouraging.’

Overall market

Adding commercial vehicle results brings total Ford January registrations to 24,907 – more than the same month last year and accounting for 15.7% of cars and commercial vehicles sold.

Overall, new car registrations rose to 145,479 units. The January 2010 market was 16,618 units short of the January 2008 figure but remained up on January 2009 by 29.8%, due to the severity of last year’s decline.

Fleet demand

The January market was again primarily supported by improved private registrations, although the growth in fleet demand provides encouraging news for a sustainable recovery post-scrappage. Registrations of alternatively fuelled vehicles jumped 165.5%, reflecting revised model offerings, to lift their market share from 0.6% last January to 1.3%.

Growth remained focused on the mini and supermini segments, but all segments posted growth in January except the upper-medium and sports car markets.

The Government's scrappage incentive scheme has triggered an extra 38,500 orders for Ford vehicles since it launched in mid-2009. Official figures show most car and commercial vehicle scrappage customers were buying Fords.

Ford Britain managing director Nigel Sharp told ModernSelling.com: ‘This will be another year of challenges but Ford and its dealers have the vehicles and expertise to maintain our strong sales momentum. We have further enhanced Ford's offer by paying this year's VAT rise and look forward to new Ford S-MAX and Galaxy models on sale this spring.’

Snowy weather boosts online traffic

The severe January weather also played its part in the story as retail forecourts full of snow-covered cars received little attention. However, whilst there were few customers walking into showrooms, the number clicking through to online showrooms increased significantly, claimed Autotorq.com, which provides web marketing, retail and eCRM services to the motor trade.

It claimed forecourt sales of 60% or more below normal levels but retail networks reporting online sales up to four times higher than usual levels, with an estimated six million people forced to stay at home.

‘Autotorq.com’s dealer customers saw online visitors increase by as much as 75% percent compared to January 2009, when the weather was less severe,’ the company said.

Chief operating officer Stewart Niblock said: ‘Whilst it was very difficult for dealers to run their forecourt and showroom operations in the adverse weather, the online environment was unaffected, and these figures show the importance of having a good web presence, as our dealer customers were able to capitalise on these leads.’

My Question / Comment Is...