CHICAGO: 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 Tuesday.

"It was a challenging and very volatile year," said Ken Czubay, Ford vice president for US 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 in a conference call discussing Ford's December sales results.

Ford's market share rose 1.1 points to 15.5 percent in 2009 and 2.4 points to 17.3 percent in December, according to Autodata.

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

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

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

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

"We made very good progress in 2009 in a very difficult business environment," Czubay said.

Ford expects global vehicle sales to resume growth this year after two consecutive years of decline.

It estimates that global vehicle sales will fall to 64 million units in 2009, down about 10.5 percent from the 2007 peak of 71.5 million.

It offered a preliminary prediction that global sales will rise to between 65 and 75 million units and that US sales will range from 11.5 to 12.5 million units.

"We look forward to 2010 with optimism and we begin the year with more forward momentum than ever," Czubay said, promising a sharp focus on developing new products and vowing that "we will not count on momentum to carry the Ford day."

Unlike rivals General Motors and Chrysler, Ford managed to cope with the collapse of auto sales last year without resorting to bankruptcy protection or the need for billions of dollars in government aid.

Ford posted surprise earnings of nearly a billion dollars in the third quarter and said it was on track to become "solidly profitable" by 2011 after years of painful losses, cost cutting and a major revamp of its product offerings.

Sales at Ford's three key brands -- Ford, Lincoln and Mercury -- were up 33.5 percent at 179,017 in December and down 15.4 percent in 2009 at 1.6 million.

Sales at Volvo -- which Ford is in the midst of selling to China's Geely -- were up 13.8 percent in December at 5,638 and down 16 percent in 2009 at 61,435.

Ford said it had posted higher sales in every product category and for every brand in December, with car sales up 42 percent, trucks up 18 percent, crossovers up 51 percent, and larger sport utility vehicles up 33 percent.