In what could be seen by some as a direct answer to Kia's announcement that it has sold more than 5,000 Soul vehicles in Europe from the beginning of the year, Ford came out today and revealed that its European arm has pushed out nearly 170,000 units since the car was introduced last autumn, with 108,000 of those sold this year. Ford said that in March alone, the company sold 52,800 Fiestas making it the highest retail sales month ever for the new subcompact hatch that is due to be launched in the U.S. in 2010.But all is not well as the economic crisis has hurt Ford's sales overall. In the first quarter of 2009, Ford of Europe sold across its Euro 19 markets 352,200 vehicles, down 69,200 or 16.4 percentage points versus 2008. On the bright side, the company's European market share rose half a percentage point to 9.4 percent which is the highest Q1 share the company has ever had since 1998.
