Ford Motor Co. posted its first full-year US market share gain since 1995 even as industry sales fell to levels not seen in nearly 30 years, the automaker said on Jan.5.Ford's market share rose 1.1 points to 15.5% in 2009 and 2.4 points to 17.3% in December, according to Autodata.

December marked the 14th time in 15 months that the second largest U.S. automaker increased its retail share but it has not yet overtaken Toyota for the number two spot in US sales.

"It was a challenging and very volatile year," said Ken Czubay, Ford vice president for U.S. marketing sales and service. "We had to deal with a near-depression economy, there were bankruptcies, bailouts, discontinued brands, distressed pricing, a government stimulus program... that resulted in huge shifts in demand from one month to the next."

Czubay attributed Ford's success to the "processes and disciplines" established with a restructuring plan which got underway in 2005.

"For 2010, I'm leaving my seatbelt on, because I think that volatility is still an element of the new norm," Czubay said.

General Motors remains solidly in the top spot despite seeing its share shrink 4.4 points in December to 20.1% and 2.4 points to 19.8% in 2009.

Ford's December sales rose 33% to 184,655 vehicles from 139,067 a year earlier. Total sales for 2009 were down 15.4% to 1.7 million vehicles.

Overall industry sales were up 15.1% in December and down 21.2% in 2009, according to Autodata.

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