Eddie Murphy, Chairman and Managing Director of Ford Ireland, commented:

"We are thrilled that new Focus is again Ireland's favourite car. With the new model arriving late in the first quarter, outside of the normally brisk sales period at the start of the year, there was a danger that the model would be playing catch up, but thanks to the outstanding market reaction to the new model, that has not been the case.

"For the 2012 sales period, pre-orders have been ahead of those for the same period in 2011 and a strong driver of that for us has been Focus. Indeed, we would be confident that Focus will retain its position as Ireland's best-selling car in 2012.”