Belgium Ford Model Sales : 1955-59

Ford has been and is a popular brand in Europe. The company had assembly operations in three countries, England, France and Germany. 

Over this period covered, England was the main supplier of models until the Taunus range from Germany began to take centre stage. 

Germany: The Taunus name was used for two separate models. The 12 and 15 were medium sized cars which were eventually replaced by the TC (Cortina in the UK). The larger 17 came later and proved very popular. By 1959, it was taking nearly half of Ford of Europe's sales. 

England: This is where most of the models came from at the time. The smaller Anglia and Prefect/Popular models along with the larger Consul/Zephyr/Zodiac range. The latter were similar to the Taunus models in size so basically competing. 

France: Production in France was not as successful and the plant in Poissy was sold to Simca in 1954. Simca continued to make the large Vedette model, some sold as Fords and others under the Simca logo until the model ran out of puff.

Ford US: sales are shown in this second chart as totals by brand name. The Fairlane 500 and Custom 300 contributed most of the sales.

Summary: Total sales for Ford in Belgium dropped nearly a thousand units over this five year period and market share suffered as a result. That retreated from 19% to under 14% but in the years immediately after Ford came back strongly and was the top selling brand in Belgium for many years. 

Data: Statbel. Pics: Zephyr hemmings.com and Vedette simcatalbotclub.com