Skip to main content

Britain’s Best-Selling Vehicle in June 2017 Was Not a Ford, And That’s Bloody Strange

The Volkswagen Golf was the best-selling new vehicle in the United Kingdom in June 2017, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.

So what, you say, the Golf is historically a European powerhouse, a fine car by all accounts, just one that’s not entirely suited to American sales success.

But for the Golf, typically a top-five car, to earn outright best seller status in the UK, something had to give.

At just the right time, when the Ford Fiesta was at a weak point, the Volkswagen Golf stepped up with a 29-percent year-over-year increase despite shrinking demand across much of the UK market. The result: the Golf ended a Ford Fiesta streak that had been in good standing for 29 months.

It’s not just Ford’s recent monthly dominance that earns a level of awe.

The Fiesta began its annual reign as the UK’s best-selling new vehicle in 2009. Despite June’s slowdown, 2017 is thus expected to be the ninth consecutive year of Fiesta sales leadership in the UK.

And yet it’s not just the Fiesta’s recent status as the UK’s leading automobile that generates such an air of invincibility for the Blue Oval across the pond.

2018-ford-fiesta-st-line-red

The Fiesta took over from another Ford, the Focus, as the UK’s best-selling vehicle, and no non-Ford vehicle has been the UK’s No.1 seller since 1971. 2017 will make it a 46-year streak of Fords atop the UK auto sales leaderboard. Forget Brexit: Ford started its run the year before Edward Heath brought the UK into the European Communities.

June’s Volkswagen Golf victory won’t bring a halt to Ford’s streak. Year-to-date, the Fiesta is nearly 23,000 sales ahead of the Golf — a 63-percent gap. Moreover, in order for the Golf to have a hope of ending 2017 as the UK’s top-selling vehicle — and you never know what could happen, as September, which accounts for 17 percent of the annual output, is yet to come — the Volkswagen would need to leapfrog another Ford: the Focus.

Meanwhile, the Fiesta’s slide into the No. 2 slot in June occurred as Ford’s UK dealers lost their grip on the sixth-generation Fiesta but didn’t yet have full possession of the all-new, seventh-gen Fiesta.

Yes, that seventh-gen Fiesta, the one that will reclaim Ford’s traditional position as the builder of Britain’s best-selling vehicle. That Fiesta, the one that still has an uncertain North American future.

But the steady decline of the Fiesta in North America, a decline that will likely lead to its demise on this side of the Atlantic, bears no resemblance to the success Ford has with the Fiesta on the other side of the Atlantic.

Despite an anticipated, 14-percent slowdown in UK sales, year-over-year, more than one-third of the volume produced by Ford — Britain’s top-selling brand — is Fiesta-derived.

This article first appeared on thetruthaboutcars.com

The post Britain’s Best-Selling Vehicle in June 2017 Was Not a Ford, And That’s Bloody Strange appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2sQfSYx
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Watch: The Stig Drives (nearly) Seven Generations of Golf GTI

With Volkswagen announcing “major” updates to the Golf, it seems an appropriate time to look back on what we’ve had so far. And who better to guide us through the rich history of the most popular European car ever made than Ben Collins, the former Stig? Some say he’s never met a GTI he doesn’t love, and that he can’t grow any of his own facial hair. All we know is … Ben Collins is actually a pretty solid presenter. Working his way through seven generations of the GTI (skipping over the Mk6) Collins tells us a little bit about each one and matches each mark to its corresponding facial hair craze. The Mk1 GTI for instance, is light and quick, but can lose traction under hard acceleration (in heavy rain). Despite that, Collins calls the Mk1 a “pure gem.” The Mk4, meanwhile, is a powerful return to form after the perhaps too sensible Mk3. Collins ends in the only way he could, with the Mk7, which accelerates faster than a Lamborghini Countach and is all kinds of wonderful. Watch, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Watch: The Story of the Ads that Made VW Big in America

The ads for the original Beetle are almost as famous and well-loved as the Beetle itself. Looking back now it’s easy to forget, though, just how easily things could have wrong. A new short from Dial M Films tracks the history of those early Volkswagen ads that sold America on the people’s car. The story, of course, begins with the visionary agency that made the ads: Doyle Dane Bernach (DDB). As a popular agency for Jewish products, no agency was more aware of the implications of Volkswagen, and no one, it seems, was more skeptical of the brand than DDB. “Remember Those Great Volkswagen Ads?” from Dial M Films on Vimeo . William Bernbach, though, was adament that the firm take the client, probably as a way of attracting other lucrative automotive clients. Saddled with a client that he didn’t want, art director Helmut Krone says in the film that he originally came up with ads that were all wrong. Krone tried to do what other manufacturers did and was intent on selling the Beetle ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Watch: The Zerouno Cruis’n USA

ItalDesign is drumming up excitement for its new supercar based around the same 5.2-liter Audi V10 that powers the R8. Naturally, it hit the road for a cruise around California last week to celebrate Monterey Car Week. There isn’t much in the way of V10 noise—which is a real shame given the sound it makes—but you do at least get a good look at the car inside and out in this video. With a body made entirely of carbon fiber and designed to be as aerodynamic and light as possible, ItalDesign figures that it will be good for a 0-60 time of just 3.2 seconds. “We put it our best skills into the production of the first car,” said Massimo Bovi, head of pre-series production, when the Zerouno was first unveiled in Geneva earlier this year. “Using some of the finest productions methods and engaging our high-skilled workers.” The car features clever aero tricks gleaned from single-seat racing, like a y-duct up front to improve downforce and turn-in. Available in a number of trim levels, the...
Post a Comment
Read more