FORD has denied that it has reneged on its September price promise, despite cutting the price of a batch of Focus models by about £1,000. The cars are all old model year stock, and Ford claims the discount is merely a marketing programme that will cease when the cars have been sold.

At the end of the summer, Ford launched a price pledge that promised to reimburse customers in the event that it reduced the recommended retail price of any model before the end of the year. The manufacturer insists that it has still not reduced its RRPs, and that the Focuses in question are part of a 'standard marketing programme applying to a particular batch of cars, largely not to current specification'. As a result, it is offering no reimbursement to customers who have bought a Focus since September 1.

The news coincided with an initiative by Vauxhall to clear 1999 model year Vectra and Omega models by offering discounts of up to £1,500 on top of any 'factory rebates' that fleets may have negotiated. The offers are available to all business customers while stocks last, and include £1,000 off the price of a Vectra Envoy, £1,250 off a Vectra 1.6 LS, £500 off a Vectra 1.8LS, £750 off diesel Vectra LS and Club models, £500 off Vectra GLS, CD, SRi and CDX models, and £1,000 off diesel GLS, CD and CDX Vectras. In addition, the price of 1999 Omega V6 variants has fallen by £1,500, but only for outright purchase fleets.