Ford sales have held their own in the highly competitive new vehicle market achieving notable gains for the month of August despite tough economic times.

Ford sold a total of 6 482 vehicles in August 2017, making this the company’s second-best monthly volume this year enabling the car manufacturer to claim a 13.2% share of total industry sales for the month which ended off at 49 222 units.

The ever-popular Ford Ranger continued its dominance of the double-cab and extended-cab light commercial vehicle (LCV) segments.

For the past three years, the Ford Ranger has been the top-selling model in the extremely popular double cab and extended cab LCV segments, and this trend continued in August, while total domestic sales rounded off at 2 566 units.

A further 3 079 locally-assembled Rangers were exported to Europe, the Middle East and African markets.

Its sport utility vehicle (SUV) sibling, the highly capable Everest seven-seater, notched up its second-best sales of the year on 536 units.

Notable gains for passenger cars

Several of Ford’s passenger car models showed notable gains as well, registering their best volumes for the year. Both the segment-leading EcoSport and the Fiesta ended the month on an identical final tally of 1 071 units sold. Figo sales climbed 50% compared to July on 530 units.

Demand for the attention-grabbing Ford Mustang continues unabated, with 101 buyers joining this exclusive club. This contributed to the Mustang’s unrivalled leadership of the sports car class, and its second-best sales this year.

“It is encouraging to see several Ford nameplates achieving some of their best sales for the year, which indicates that it’s not all doom and gloom in the new vehicle market,” said Neale Hill, Director of Marketing, Sales and Service for Ford Motor Company Sub-Saharan Africa Region.

“While the economy remains under pressure, the demand from consumers on delivering exceptional value for money continues to grow, and we’ve seen the benefits of this with our Car Month programme during August.