FORD is considering a fundamental shift in its sales strategy in a bid to give fleet and private customers confidence they are being treated fairly. Ford of Britain chairman Ian McAllister said he wanted to move to a system where special dealer incentives did not leave some buyers getting much better deals than others.

He wants to pay dealers their incentive when the customer orders the car, rather than during specific order periods. The system would discourage special discounts and limited offers which currently dominate the market. 'We must move to a situation where we do not spring surprises on the customer,' he said. 'We want to give both the private and company car buyer more certainty that they are not missing out on special offers because they happen to buy at the wrong time.'

Currently, dealers register huge numbers of cars and give some customers sizeable discounts at the end of the month to hit sales targets.