NEWS

GOVERNMENT officials have renewed the IMI’s prestigious licence as Sector Skills Council for car dealers. All 25 SSCs have been through the independent relicensing process, conducted by the National Audit Office. Passing the audit means the IMI retains its official seal of approval, after a successful 2 years as car dealer training experts. SMMT chief [...]

NEW car sales for October saw more big market share increases – led by scrappage winner Hyundai. Market share for the Korean brand was up 286 percent! That’s over 100 percent MORE than sister brand Kia’s otherwise-glittering 156 percent rise. Fiat’s sales were also up 117 percent, while Nissan scored 108 percent, Suzuki 106 percent [...]

SCRAPPAGE incentives are widely being credited as the driving force behind recent new car sales rises. However, the SMMT has just released data, showing that October sales would have gone up even without scrappage The market would have risen by 3.9 percent over 2008 levels – less than the actual scrappage-boosted 31.6 percent figure, but [...]

FORD has ALREADY sold 100,000 new Fiestas so far this year – with 2 months of 2009 still to go. October’s sales figures have seen the blue oval supermini become the first car to reach the 6-figure mark. Nigel Sharp, Ford Britain MD, said ‘notching up over 100,000 sales this year is a significant milestone [...]

09.27: NEW car sales for October are currently under review – because the SMMT data shows NO sales for Toyota! The official spreadsheet released by the SMMT shows not a single registration for the Japanese brand. It is not yet clear whether this will lead to a change in the total registrations for October… … [...]

NEW car sales for October were  up a huge 31.6% on 2008 levels – the biggest month of growth in 2009. Figures just released by the SMMT show that 168,942 new cars were sold in October. This takes the year-to-date total to 1,685,981 sales – meaning the year-on-year fall continues to decline. It now stands [...]

NEW car sales rises are being driven by small cars, reveals latest registration data from the SMMT. Supermini sales are up 47.9 percent in October – and city car sales are up an incredible 200 percent! This has seen 7 out of the top 10 best-sellers being superminis.  It also means there are some surprises. [...]

USED cars will now display a customer-friendly fuel economy mpg label, with the launch of a new initiative. Minister for transport Sadiq Khan MP unveiled the scheme, to which 1500 car dealers have already signed up. Mirroring the official new car eco label used by over 9 in 10 dealers, it brings colour-coded used car [...]

CAR industry bodies and MPs have joined forces to support the consumer-friendly Motor Codes Practice. This provides further key support for a scheme that, it is hoped, will stave off the threat of further Government legislation for car dealers. The Motor Industry Code of Practice for Service and Repair has been given the seal of [...]

NEW vans sold from 2014 will have to meet tough green rules demanding a fleet average of 42.8mpg. The EC proposals are part of wider laws to reduce the environmental impact of vans. This will also cut the average CO2 from van makers’ fleet average to 175g/km – tough enough to be met with resistance [...]

SCRAPPAGE is not only boosting car sales, but it is also meeting a green aim of cutting CO2, says the SMMT. Registrations from May to September numbered 181,092, with cars forming over 178k of this total. This number is, of course, distinct to scrappage orders, which currently stands significantly higher. SMMT chief executive Paul Everitt [...]

CAR sales have been so strong recently, the SMMT has added 100,000 motors to its 2009 sales forecast. The revision is entirely down to the success of the scrappage scheme. SMMT chief Paul Everitt said ‘the Scrappage Incentive Scheme has had a demonstrably positive impact on new car registrations in 2009’. It sees the 2009 [...]

BRITISH motor industry just keeps on getting more environmentally friendly, reveal stats from the SMMT. Celebrating a decade of publishing its innovative annual Sustainability Report, the SMMT figures show UK production plants are among the greenest in Europe. 10 years into the report, said SMMT chief executive Paul Everitt, it was a good time to [...]

SMMT chief Paul Everitt reports welcome news from the Government’s Committee on Climate Change. In its first official report to Parliament, the CCC recognised the ‘significant cuts’ car makers have achieved recently. What’s more, the aims it has set going forward are ALREADY underway throughout the car industry. The CCC has targeted three areas it [...]

SEAT is chuffed to announce record LOWS for September, as well as breaking a number of decade-long highs. A 40 percent market share boost has seen the UK become SEAT’s most important export market in the whole of Europe. It’s currently holding 1.5 percent of the UK market – that’s the firm’s largest slice of [...]

NISSAN has used scrappage to push its market share above 4 percent, for the first time in 6 years. The UK-producing Japanese firm says key to this success are models built by the Sunderland factory – a staggering 82 percent of Nissans sold here last month were also built here. 16,908 sales helped snare it [...]

TOYOTA and Hyundai are two more car makers to claim record results during September’s sales boom. Indeed, Toyota claims to have broken no less than FOUR records! It scored its best-ever monthly retail volume, passenger car retail volume, market share for plate change month and retail share for the same month. Retail volume of 17,267 [...]

KIA has NEVER sold as many cars in a single month, as it did after recording 9772 sales in September 2009… And that’s true for any Kia car market across the whole of Europe! This earned Kia a 3.7 percent market share for the UK in September, adding to its year-to-date total share of 2.6 [...]

FORD won big in September – it not only sold more cars than anyone else, its sales boost was twice the UK average! Sales for the blue oval were up a massive 22 percent on September 2008. That equates to 54,500 new Fords being sold during the month – which saw the firm take nearly [...]

ALFA Romeo is pleased to join the September scrap sales success party, with eye-opening figures. Nearly 2000 Alfa Romeos were registered in September – a rise of nearly 150 percent! OK, the numbers were perhaps too small to be truly representative, but they are still a clear sign of the strides being made by the [...]