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E W N 8 - 14 May 2014 / Costa de Almería
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White is the new black... SPAIN, Greece and Italy attract millions of visitors every year to their sun-drenched beaches, but a new Ford Motor Company study on buying trends in Europe shows that residents in some of the region’s hottest countries are among the least likely to buy a new car with a sunroof. This is one of several findings from Ford Car Buying Trends 2014, a study of new car buying habits in 22 countries across Europe, highlighting regional trends and national differences that both conform to and confound expectations. The study shows that white surpassed black last year as the most popular car colour across Europe, according to an analysis of more than 500,000 Ford vehicle purchases in Europe in the past year. The fast-growing car colours in recent years have been brown and orange. “When it comes to car buyers’ tastes there are a few things that remain consistent over the years and many aspects that change and evolve,” said Roelant de Waard, Vice President, Marketing, Sales and Service, Ford of Europe. “We study these changes - and some can be technology. Heated seats were rare in Turkey (1 per cent), Greece (2 per cent), and Spain (3 per cent). The countries whose buyers are most likely to specify a cigarette lighter as part of a smoking pack: Greece (73 per cent), Spain (53 per cent) and Romania (35 per cent). Across Europe, the most popular colours are white (23 per cent), black (20 per cent) and grey (17 per cent) - with one of the three colours the top choice for every single country except Ireland, Poland and Romania, where silver - the fourth most popular colour in Europe (14 per cent) - is the preferred option. Turkish buyers are far and away the biggest fans of white, with 55 per cent of Ford vehicles purchased in that colour. British car buyers - perhaps a nod to England’s red-coated soldiers - are the most likely in Europe to buy a red Ford. While Romanian buyers are the most likely to choose a Ford with a blue paint job. Norwegians like brown cars more than any other country (12 per cent).
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TOP SELLER: Across Europe the most popular colour is white. surprising - in order to better serve customers across Europe.” Among the counterintuitive findings were national preferences for sunroofs. Buyers in Norway, more known for snow than sunshine, were the most likely to choose a new Ford with a sunroof (15 per cent) just ahead of France (11 per cent) and Germany (10 per cent). Drivers in sunny countries meanwhile were among the least likely to specify sunroofs: Spain (5 per cent), Italy (3 per cent) and Greece (2 per cent). Buyers in chilly Norway were also the most likely to buy a new Ford with automatic air conditioning (80 per cent), ahead of Belgium (77 per cent) and Netherlands (71 per cent). Some of the most likely to buy cars with manual air conditioning were drivers in sunny Turkey (96 per cent) and Spain (92 per cent). Not surprisingly, drivers in Scandinavia also were the most likely to specify heated seats, with 99 per cent of Ford cars bought in Sweden, Norway and Finland featuring the