September’s Car Makers Premier League (based on the SMMT figures for UK new car registrations in September 2009) is, because it’s plate change month, the “big one” and although the market is 11.4 percent up on last year it should be remembered that September 2008 was a pretty dismal month for new car registrations, it being 21.2% down on 2007 so there is still a long way to go. It’s probably safe to say that the market will not recover to 2007 levels for a good while yet as manufacturers rationalize their production in line with demand.
It’s “as you were” as far as the top two positions in the car Makers Premier League is concerned this month with Hyundai and Kia still taking full advantage of the scrappage scheme with 122 and 101 percent increases respectively. They will be glad to hear that the scrappage scheme has been extended as 76 percent of Hyundai’s September new car registrations and 52 percent of Kia’s came directly from the scheme. Surprisingly Land Rover storm back to the number three spot from nowhere with a 34% increase on September 2008 and with only 57 of the 6,587 units registered coming from scrappage they appear to be doing very well. This month we lose Seat and Suzuki (real yoyo brands) as their September registrations, once again, take them out of the top 20.
September’s league makes uncomfortable reading for German car makers as BMW, VW, Audi and especially Mercedes move down the table with only BMW’s Mini brand improving (moving up from 13th to 7th). Renault, Vauxhall, Audi and Mercedes are the only manufacturers to show a decline on September 2008 with Mercedes being the biggest loser with a 14 percent reverse.
In fact taking the league as a whole it is interesting (and somewhat encouraging) to see that the top 13 positions all outperformed the market.
Next month will undoubtedly be a tough one so expect to see some big changes.
| POS | Manufacturer | September 2008 | September 2009 | Diff | % |
| 1(1) | 
| 4970 | 11031 | 6061 | 122 |
| 2(2) | 
| 4875 | 9778 | 4903 | 101 |
| 3(-) | 
| 4907 | 6587 | 1680 | 34 |
| 4(3) | 
| 12417 | 16142 | 3725 | 30 |
| 5(18) | 
| 5099 | 6301 | 1202 | 24 |
| 6(9) | 
| 44631 | 54553 | 9922 | 22 |
| 7(13) | 
| 7116 | 8634 | 1518 | 21 |
| 8(3) | 
| 9818 | 11712 | 1894 | 19 |
| 9(17) | 
| 9506 | 11289 | 1783 | 19 |
| 10(12) | 
| 12460 | 14750 | 2290 | 18 |
| 11(-) | 
| 5453 | 6192 | 739 | 14 |
| 12(6) | 
| 18840 | 21179 | 2339 | 12 |
| 13(15) | 
| 12284 | 13688 | 1404 | 11 |
| 14(10) | 
| 17860 | 19526 | 1666 | 9 |
| 15(16) | 
| 22176 | 28181 | 1005 | 4 |
| 16(11) | 
| 18057 | 18440 | 383 | 2 |
| 17(19) | 
| 10454 | 10354 | (100) | (1) |
| 18(20) | 
| 42727 | 41255 | (1472) | (3) |
| 19(15) | 
| 16355 | 15117 | (1238) | (8) |
| 20(8) | 
| 14777 | 12690 | (2087) | (14) |
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