[Donut King]

Powered by Strong Falcon Performance, Ford Australia Improves Year over Year Sales

August VFACTS figures show Ford Australia's sales volume increased by 4.4% over the same month last year. Driven by a 13.7% increase compared with the same month last year, Falcon claimed 41% of the large car segment, was Australia's best selling car in August and gave the company its best Falcon sales result since June 2004.

"Achieving leadership of the large car segment in August is a great accomplishment for the company and our dealers," said Ford Australia President Tom Gorman.

"This strong sales result comes at an important time for us, as we start run out of the award winning BA and prepare ourselves for the eagerly anticipated October launch of the new BF Falcon.

"The large car market remains extremely important and continues to attract a wide variety of Australian consumers. Competition for share of this segment is only going to heat up over the coming months."

Falcon Ute also had a great sales month, achieving its best ever August sales with 1823 utes sold. Combined with total Courier sales of 538 vehicles, 179 F-Series, and 249 Transit Vans, Ford Australia's light truck line achieved its best ever August sales result with 2868 vehicles sold.

"Sales in other market segments were also positive," said Mr Gorman.

"Fiesta had a solid month with 385 vehicles sold and the new Focus reached 922 sales. Our dealers are reporting strong interest in the new Focus and we continue to work closely with the Ford team in South Africa to free up additional capacity. Demand for the new Focus is very strong - if we can get them, we can sell them.

"Territory retained the leadership of the medium SUV segment it has held since going on sale in June 2004. Sales of 1735 increased over the same period last year.

"Activity will increase in the remaining months of the year. The launch of the new BF Falcon and SY Territory in October will stimulate interest in these two important segments, and also provide our customers with even further performance, refinement and fuel economy advantages."