Dearborn, Michigan — For the first time in more than 50 years, Ford Motor Company of Canada became the top selling automaker in the country.
At least for the month of June, 2009 … GM still leads in year-to-date sales (133,224 versus 107,804).
In June, however, Ford led all automakers with 27,408 sold units.
GM was second with 22,034, followed by Toyota (17,198), Honda (11,942), Hyundai (10,104), and Chrysler (9161).
That represents an obvious shift of fortunes. In June of 2008 the sales leader order was GM (31,887), Chrysler (22,048), Ford (21,959), Toyota (20,871), and Honda (14,918).
“We’re on a roll in Canada … That’s eight months in a row that our share is up,” said Mark Fields, Ford’s president, The Americas. We caught up with Fields, at the automaker’s press preview for 2010 models.
“Our team up there, lead by David Mondragon, is really being aggressive in getting our message out … We’re just honoured and satisfied that Canadian consumers are coming more and more to Ford.”
We asked Fields if there would ever be a time when Canadian product line-up would not be entirely in lock step with the American product line-up. He didn’t see a need for differing line-ups, pointing to a developing North American “convergence” of customer needs and tastes.
“In the Eastern part of Canada, small cars dominate the industry …The west is more skewed toward trucks … In the past, the U.S. market did not display particularly strong demand for smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles, and that shaded our product choices up in Canada. But now we’re seeing smaller more fuel-efficient vehicles being more in demand in the U.S. There are more similarities now, between Canada and the U.S.
“New vehicles we have coming out, like the Fiesta, are really going to do well in markets like Quebec, and in a number of key cities across the country.”
photo:Mike Goetz
At least for the month of June, 2009 … GM still leads in year-to-date sales (133,224 versus 107,804).
In June, however, Ford led all automakers with 27,408 sold units.
GM was second with 22,034, followed by Toyota (17,198), Honda (11,942), Hyundai (10,104), and Chrysler (9161).
That represents an obvious shift of fortunes. In June of 2008 the sales leader order was GM (31,887), Chrysler (22,048), Ford (21,959), Toyota (20,871), and Honda (14,918).
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| Mark Fields, Ford's President |
“We’re on a roll in Canada … That’s eight months in a row that our share is up,” said Mark Fields, Ford’s president, The Americas. We caught up with Fields, at the automaker’s press preview for 2010 models.
“Our team up there, lead by David Mondragon, is really being aggressive in getting our message out … We’re just honoured and satisfied that Canadian consumers are coming more and more to Ford.”
We asked Fields if there would ever be a time when Canadian product line-up would not be entirely in lock step with the American product line-up. He didn’t see a need for differing line-ups, pointing to a developing North American “convergence” of customer needs and tastes.
“In the Eastern part of Canada, small cars dominate the industry …The west is more skewed toward trucks … In the past, the U.S. market did not display particularly strong demand for smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles, and that shaded our product choices up in Canada. But now we’re seeing smaller more fuel-efficient vehicles being more in demand in the U.S. There are more similarities now, between Canada and the U.S.
“New vehicles we have coming out, like the Fiesta, are really going to do well in markets like Quebec, and in a number of key cities across the country.”
photo:Mike Goetz