Regular updates and new models like the Transit Custom have protected Ford’s market share, but there’s no hiding the shrunken state of the UK’s medium van market.

It’s no secret that van sales remain depressed compared to pre-recession levels, but some recent sales figures from Ford enabled me to see just how big this decline has been.

Ford put out a press release in the wake of yesterday’s SMMT van registration figures showing that its share of the European medium van market is at its highest level for more than a decade. More interesting than that were Ford’s historic sales figures for Transit vans since 2002.

Since the medium van market accounts for roughly 60% of UK van sales, it’s a key barometer of the state of the economy. So how is UK plc doing?

Still down 30%

In 2003, Ford sold 72,078 Transits, giving it a 33.2% share of the UK market. In 2012, the blue oval sold 55,259 Transits, giving it a 30.7% share of the UK market.

Using these figures, we can see that the UK medium van market has shrunk from 217,102 in 2003 to 179,996 last year — a 17% reduction over the last decade.

Ford’s figures show that medium van sales peaked in 2006, when sales hit 257,625, before dropping to a low of 134,778 in 2009. So far this year, Ford’s figures indicate that 169,353 medium vans have been sold in the UK, suggesting that the year-end figure will be slightly higher than in 2012, but medium van sales are likely to remain around 30% below the pre-recession peak, providing a stark reminder of how much ground the economy has lost over the last five years.

Used market remains key

Although van hire firms have generally maintained their fleet renewal policies through the recession, there has been a trend towards running vehicles slightly longer, and many other fleet operators and small businesses have definitely kept their vans for longer and delayed new purchases, all of which has helped to contribute to the shortage of decent quality used stock and the ongoing increase in used van prices, which are at record levels, according to auction data.

Ford’s recent move to introduce capped-price servicing for cars and vans over four years old reflects this shift in the market — the firm wants to develop a relationship with owners of older vehicles who might previously have been ‘lost’ to main dealers, in the hope that they will eventually buy a new van, as the economy begins to recover.

However, the overall message is clear — the economy still has a lot of lost ground to make up.