Petrol was the fuel of choice of 58 percent of European drivers, according to a new Ford Motor Company study on buying trends in 22 European countries in the past year; the remainder went diesel, with less than 1 percent choosing a model powered by alternative fuels.
The survey of over 500,000 Ford buyers also shows that drivers in all European countries still prefer a manual gearbox over an automatic one - some 85 percent choose a car with a manual gear stick. In the Netherlands and Ireland that rises to 96 percent.
Wagons, or estates, offer a more practical option for Mondeo and Focus buyers and these appeal most to drivers in Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany with 5-door versions of the same cars most likely to find a home in Greece Spain and in Britain. In Europe as a whole, half of cars buyers choose 5-door models, 35 percent prefer wagons and the rest opt for 4-door cars.
Substantial motorway networks could explain why Switzerland, the Netherlands and Germany top the list of countries where drivers buy the most technology that pays off on road trips - including Ford's Blind Spot Information System, Lane Keeping Aid, and Lane Departure Warning. Drivers in the Netherlands clearly like technologies that help make life easier as customers there specify the most cars equipped with cruise control.
Stats for Ireland show 99 percent of Ford buyers specified manual air conditioning in their cars (99%); 96 percent bought manual gearboxes; and 27 percent wanted silver cars.
Irish customers ranked fourth in the survey for opting for the hands-free tailgate feature on their new Kuga SUV.
However, the survey found a low rate of take up here on key new technologies: Active Park Assist; Active City Stop; and Lane Keeping Aid. In most cases, these are optional extras and most customers are put off because of the extra cost, in particular the extra VRT which is levied on optional extras, even ones that enhance road safety.
Pictured above is the new Ford Focus, revealed in Geneva in March, which goes on sale here in the second half of this year.
