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Ford Says It Was No. 1 in 2005

Challenges GM to Drop Its Ad Claims for Chevrolet

February 12, 2006

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Ford Motor Co. claims Ford vehicles outsold Chevrolet in 2005 and is challenging General Motors to stop its advertising claims that Chevrolet is America's top-selling brand.

But GM CEO Rick Wagoner says the company is standing by sales data that show Chevy won the sales crown in 2005, Automotive News reported. GM is one of the principal sponsors of NBC's Winter Olympics coverage.

The fight boils down at least partly to semantics. Ford says it received R.L. Polk & Co. registration data Saturday that show 5,000 more Fords than Chevrolets were registered in 2005.

GM's claims are based on sales of 2,651,124 Chevrolets in 2005, compared to 2,634,041 for Ford.

Ford says Polk data show 2.630 million total Ford registrations in 2005 compared with 2.625 million for Chevrolet. Even when medium-duty trucks are exempted, Ford still had the most registrations, the company said.

The difference is that Polk data show vehicles registered by retail dealers and fleet customers. GM's claim is based on sales reported by dealers, which is the measure traditionally used to determine the top-selling brand.

Ford says it will send GM a letter this week demanding that Chevrolet change the ads.

A GM spokeswoman said sales data are the industry standard and that there are always discrepancies between sales and registration data. Wagoner said GM will stand by its claim based on sales data.

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