Focus Blasts Back To No.1

Only months after its launch, the Ford Focus is back at the top of the UK sales charts. Despite intense competition from new rivals such as the Volkswagen Golf, Vauxhall Astra and Citroen C4, the Focus rose to the number one spot - a position its predecessor has occupied almost solidly since it arrived in 1998.

Auto Express Car Reviews

12th April 2005

Bumper sales, brought in part by the 05-registration change on 1 March, saw 27,750 examples of the blue oval's latest family hatch find new homes - which means the Focus outsold its nearest rival, the Astra (17,361), by a whopping 63 per cent.

In third place was another Vauxhall, the Corsa, which with 16,533 sales was narrowly ahead of the Ford Fiesta, on 16,292. Meanwhile, 11,693 Golfs were registered, leaving the VW seventh.

The figures, gathered by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), also revealed that the UK was Saab's biggest market worldwide, and that the boom in diesel sales is continuing. The number of oil-burners registered last month increased by 2.4 per cent - the 54th successive monthly rise. Renault's M΃©gane dCi was the top-selling diesel in March, and for the first quarter of the year, while the Ford Mondeo TDCi took second place.

For an alternative review of the latest Ford Focus visit our sister site carbuyer.co.uk