Big year for blue oval

Ford’s sales last month were up by 43 per cent from the same month in 2015 with registrations of new cars up 50 per cent from January last year. The Mondeo led the growth in passenger vehicles taking the top spot in its segment, while the Ranger sold 659 units in January – 350 more than its closest competitor, Toyota’s Hilux. The new Focus, which was launched late last year, had a top-three finish. Simon Rutherford, managing director of Ford NZ, believes 2016 is going to be the blue oval’s year. “Coming out of an incredibly busy 2015 with a record number of new-vehicle launches, we are prepared for 2016 with one of the freshest line-ups of vehicles the industry has on offer,” he says. “We went into 2016 optimistic, so it makes our performance in January all the more exciting as customers begin to experience the new vehicles”. He adds the marque is “particularly happy about as both dealers and the manufacturer is the fantastic performance in passenger vehicles”. Growth continues to be strong for the marque with 130 Mustangs registered in January and a further 750 pre-ordered by Kiwis. Mustang EcoBoost orders are leading the way, making up more than 20 per cent of orders, followed by convertibles at 15 per cent and manual GTs at 13 per cent.