Finland Top 4 Brands : 1960-69

The Escort was a runaway success for Ford Europe

There were some big movements of sales in the 60's in Finland. Only 23,500 cars were sold in 1960, which climbed to 99,900 in 1965. The fell back to 48,300 in 1968, before rebounding nearly 75% to 84,500 in '69. Moskvich started the decade on top, but was not able to quite maintain it although always comfortably in the top 10 during the decade.

I don't have a full list of brand sales for each year. Therefore a company like BLMC that had a few brands under it cannot be fully assessed. Austin and Morris brands were strong sellers during the 60's, but without the rest of the brands known, they have to be kept separate. As to whether BL ever got into the top 4 I cannot say, but they certainly would have at the very least gone close.

Toyota surprised me with how they able to reach this list so early. I believe the brand only started selling cars officially in Europe in 1963. Nissan (then Datsun) arrived a year earlier and were soon regularly at 6th in Finland in the latter part of the decade, but for that reason don't show here.

Sales below are in hundreds, 5.4 means 5,400. The extreme right column is the percentage the top 4 took.

Yr	1st	Sales	%	2nd	Sales	%	3rd	Sales	%	4th	Sales	%	%
1960	Mosk	5.4	23	Skod	3.3	14	VW	1.7	7	Ford	1.4	6	50
1961	Mosk	5.5	20	Skod	3.7	13	VW	3.0	11	Ford	2.1	7	51
1962	Mosk	6.1	15	VW	5.0	12	Skod	4.7	12	Ford	4.1	10	49
1963	Ford	7.7	15	VW	7.6	15	Fiat	3.8	7	Simca	3.6	7	43
1964	Ford	13.1	16	VW	10.0	12	Fiat	7.0	8	Opel	4.9	6	43
1965	VW	17.3	17	Ford	14.4	14	Opel	8.1	8	Fiat	8.0	8	48
1966	VW	14.1	18	Ford	10.7	14	Opel	6.5	8	Fiat	6.5	8	48
1967	VW	12.2	19	Ford	9.6	15	Fiat	5.6	9	Mosk	4.2	6	48
1968	Ford	9.2	19	VW	6.7	14	Fiat	4.5	9	Toyo	3.4	7	49
1969	Ford	13.9	17	VW	10.3	12	Fiat	8.5	10	Toyo	7.5	9	48

Data source: Thanks to Autolan Tiedotuskeskus.
For other decades: 1956-59, 1970-79, 1980-89, 1990-99, and 2000-13.

A 1969 Corolla model