Fiesta tops Golf in European sales

The Ford Fiesta dethroned the popular Volkswagen Golf in March to become Europe's most-popular vehicle, according to JATO Dynamics, a Britain-based data company, even while industry sales declined 9%.

The Golf had been the top-selling vehicle for a year, but Fiesta has been well received since the new version went on sale last fall. Fiesta also benefited in Germany and Italy from government incentive programs that have provided money to people who turn in old cars when they buy new cars, JATO said.

Ford Motor Co. sold 52,805 Fiestas in Europe last month, up 15.5% from March 2008, while Golf sales dropped by 0.1% to 46,415.

Ford plans to begin selling the Fiesta in North America early in 2010.

SHANGHAI AUTO: Ford: High Single-Digit Growth In China Market

April 20, 2009: 03:59 AM ET

SHANGHAI -(Dow Jones)- Overall sales in China's automobile market are likely to show high single-digit percentage growth this year, a senior executive at Ford Motor Co. (F) said Monday.

Robert Graziano, chairman and chief executive of Ford Motor (China) Ltd., made the remark at the Shanghai Autoshow but declined to disclose Ford's sales target in China this year.

"Our desire is to at least meet industry growth and ideally exceed industry growth," he said.

China remains one of the few auto markets in the world that is still growing. China's auto sales climbed for a second straight month in March, rising 5% to 1.11 million units. In contrast, March sales fell 30% in the U.S. and 32% in Japan.

Last year, China's vehicle sales growth slowed to 6.7% to 9.38 million units, falling short of the official 10 million unit target. It was the first non- double-digit growth rate in China's auto sales since since 1999.

Ford's sales in China will be boosted by the introduction in early March of the Fiesta sedan and hatchback, which qualify for a purchase tax cut implemented by the Chinese government in January, Graziano said.

-By Patricia Jiayi Ho, Dow Jones Newswires; 86-21-6120-1200; patricia.ho@ dowjones.com