Ford on track to top Toyota, Honda in sales

BEIJING -- Ford Motor Co. is poised to overtake its Japanese rivals in sales in China as Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. struggle to regain market share after a flare-up in anti-Japanese sentiment a year ago.For much of the past decade, Ford has languished behind Japanese brands and South Korea's Hyundai Group. And it has lagged far behind General Motors and Volkswagen AG in China.That's mainly because of Ford's late foray into China and the subsequent, conservative approach it has taken in an auto market that became the world's biggest in 2009.Ford is fighting to change that picture and appears likely to sell more vehicles in China this year than two of its main Japanese rivals, Toyota and Honda. Its China sales are also zooming close to those of Nissan Motor Co.Ford said on Wednesday it sold 96,111 vehicles in China in September, up 61 percent from a year earlier, with volume driven by firm demand for the company's new product lineup.During the first nine months of the year, Ford's China sales totaled 647,849 vehicles, up 51 percent.Ford is likely to sell more than 900,000 vehicles, including passenger cars and commercial vehicles, in China this year thanks to its beefed-up product lineup, said a company official who spoke on condition of anonymity. New in the showroom since last year are a couple of small SUVs and the redesigned Focus car.Sharp rise for Japanese