In a display of confidence about its fourth calendar quarter sales, Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) yesterday announced that its Ford Focus nameplate is the best-selling car in the world, with more than 737,000 new vehicle registrations through September. The company’s Ford Fiesta nameplate is on track to be the fifth best-selling car globally, with more than 520,000 sales and the venerable Ford F-150 pickup truck is number four, with more than 576,000 sales.

The company also noted that Ford is the only carmaker with 3 vehicles in the top 10 best-sellers.

Ford also said that U.S. sales would top 2 million vehicles in 2012 for the second consecutive year. No other brand is expected to reach the 2 million sales level according to the company.

The Focus represents an important innovation for Ford. Where the company once sold different cars with the same name in Europe and the U.S., now all Focus models are the same, lowering design and production costs and improving profits.

Ford’s shares are down about 0.5% in early trading today, at $12.80 in a 52-week range of $8.82 to $13.05.

Paul Ausick

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