Car Makers Premier League - September 2009

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)