NEWS

FORD has REGAINED its number one in the UK car sales chart, new figures from the SMMT confirm. According to figures released last week by the SMMT, Ford topped the July sales chart with 18,442 registrations and totaled 176,792 cars registered this year. July also showed the company increasing its retail car market share to [...]

SMMT July new car sales show a big FALL for the first time in a year with registrations down over 13 percent. Figures just released by the SMMT reveal the market declined 13.2 percent in July 2010 – although the year-to-date total is still up 15.1 percent. Further falls are expected over the rest of [...]

FORD has revealed it cut short-cycle rental business in June in order to improve the brand’s residual values. This tallies with the consolidation of Ford sales, that has seen the previous best-selling Fiesta slip to third place in the UK sales charts. However, thanks to early-year success, the Fiesta remains the UK’s best seller year-to-date, [...]

FORD has finally been knocked off its top UK new car sales slot in June 2010 – by its arch-rival, Vauxhall. The new Astra was the best-seller for the month, with 10,525 sales meaning it was also the only car to sell a five-figure volume. The Fiesta has actually slipped to THIRD place, some way [...]

SMMT figures for June show new car registrations were up 10.8 percent despite the end of the scrappage scheme. These figures continue to be ahead of SMMT expectations, says the UK car trade body. It means new car registrations remain up by nearly 20 percent in the first half of 2010 – which, says the [...]

SMMT figures show May new car sales rose by 13.5 percent but the SMMT expects the market to now start declining. The May rise is the 11th successive one and saw the Ford Focus displace the Fiesta as the UK’s top car. However, now the scrappage boost has ended, the SMMT is predicting a modest [...]

MARCH 2010 has been a successful month for many brands but what about those that didn’t do so well? Well, the top market share fall slots were dominated by beleaguered makers Corvette, Daihatsu and Hummer. Indeed, Hummer barely exists at all, and Car Dealer Magazine was first to report the woes of Daihatsu here in [...]

SCRAPPAGE is continuing to impact the new car market with total registrations hitting 372,401 cars. This was the figure at the end of March, meaning scrappage still accounted for 12.2 percent of new car registrations. It is good news for the Government, which has been working to ensure no orders get ‘lost’ in the system [...]

MARCH has been a positive month for new car sales, up 26.6 percent over March 2009, according to SMMT figures. Hyundai sold over 15,000 cars in March alone, more than half the total number they sold in the whole of 2008. Much of Hyundai’s success over the past year has been down to the scrappage [...]

CAR makers have rightly been falling over themselves to shout about their big new car sales gains for March… But one car maker is shouting loudest of all – Renault. The French brand has posted the greatest market share gain of all for March 2010, with Renault’s total shooting up a huge 1.8 percent. This [...]

FORD refuses to be budged from the new car best-seller chart with the Fiesta retaining its 2010 crown. 23,681 Ford Fiestas were sold, to give it the market-leading honours. What’s more, its margin of superiority over the 2nd-placed car was a staggering 5692 cars. And that runner-up car? Why, it was the Ford Focus… Vauxhall [...]

NEW car registrations continued to rise in March with SMMT figures revealing a 26.6 percent increase in sales. 397,383 new cars were registered during the month. Scrappage continued to have an effect, but it was not the key driver of sales: 12.2 percent of registrations were through scrappage. Instead, growing fleet demand is helping keep [...]

SCRAPPAGE sales accounted for 21 percent of September new car registrations, says the SMMT. This means 77,316 scrappage cars were sold. It also means the total amount of cars registered under the scheme now stands at 178,278. Of course, this doesn’t include cars already on order, too – they take the figure far higher. ‘The [...]

UK car registration figures just released by the SMMT show an 11.4% rise for September – again, thanks to scrappage. The figures are the THIRD monthly rise in a row, and are a further boost to new car dealers. 367,929 new cars were sold in the key sales month of September, as car buyers responded [...]