Ford, Mazda sales roar ahead

Ford sales rose by 52 per cent to 3,820 vehicles, driven by best-ever monthly sales for the Ranger pickup and second best-ever sales for the Fiesta, while Mazda sales grew by 54 per cent to 5,403 vehicles, marking the best monthly sales for the year.

For the American auto-maker, sales of the all-new Ranger soared 285 per cent from the same month last year to 1,493. Ford has accumulated 20,000 orders for the Ranger 6 months after its launch.

Sales of the Fiesta subcompact reached 2,154 cars, up 23 per cent compared to the same month last year.

Last month Ford officially opened its new US$450-million (Bt14.2 billion) plant in Rayong, which will pump out the new Focus compact car starting this month. The Focus will reach showrooms in August when it is publicly launched.

Meanwhile, sales of the new BT-50 PRO pickup were up by 208 per cent to 2,184 vehicles in May, while 2,713 Mazda2s were sold, up 25 per cent. Sales of the Mazda3 were boosted by the introduction of the 1.6-litre version and reached 505 cars last month.

“Mazda has prepared a large number of marketing activities for the second half of the year, mainly for new and special model launches plus campaigns to thank customers for their trust in our brand for so long. We will be concentrating on activities that directly reach target customers in order to achieve our 60,000-vehicle sales target this year, which is equal to a 40-per-cent increase compared to 2011,” Mazda Sales (Thailand) managing director Choichi Yuki said.