Car Makers Premier League – November 2009

This month’s Car Makers Premier League (based on the SMMT figures for UK new car registrations in November 2009) is, on the surface, very encouraging with all the top twenty manufacturers posting an increase on November 2008. It has to be said though that November last year was a very bad month indeed and was already down 36.8% on November 2007.

Overall the market was up 57.6 percent with a total of 158,082 units being registered in the month. By November 2008 the recession really was in full swing so the surge in registrations needs to be looked at in perspective.

In the “Car Makers Premier League” each month we take the top twenty manufacturers by number of new cars registered and take a closer look at each manufacturers performance and this month once again it’s been another excellent month for the Hyundai Kia Automotive Group with both its UK brands firmly ensconced in the top two positions with a staggering 561 percent increase on November 2008 for Hyundai and 242 percent increase for Kia. Clearly the Scrappage scheme is still supplying a massive benefit to sales for these small car specialists. In third position (up from 6 last month) is Renault who must also win the award for most improved performer after spending the vast proportion of the year in last place.

All told the top 11 manufacturers all outperformed the market. Remaining at position five this month is Land Rover who, despite only registering 60 vehicles through the scrappage scheme, have recorded a 139 per cent increase on last year, thanks to some very clever (and very generous) marketing.

Bad news this month for Audi who drop five places to the bottom with a mediocre 14 per cent increase on last year, with 476 of their registrations coming via scrappage.

If we were to imagine an alternative reality where the scrappage scheme was never introduced Land Rover would be on top of the pile with a whopping 133 per cent increase on last year. Hyundai and Kia would also still be looking pretty good. In fact Only VW and Ford would be doing worse than 2008 with negligible percentage drops.

POS	Manufacturer	November 2008	November 2009	Diff	%
1(1)		852	5634	4782	561
2(2)		1571	5369	3798	242
3(6)		3012	8163	5151	171
4(4)		2928	7214	4286	146
5(5)		1034	2474	1440	139
6(3)		2566	6014	3448	134
7(10)		2560	5963	3403	133
8(11)		4443	8427	3984	90
9(7)		2014	3656	1642	81
10(9)		1723	3097	1374	80
11(8)		1764	2841	1077	61
12(17)		3632	5447	1815	50
13(18)		5785	8547	2762	48
14(14)		2600	3762	1162	45
15(13)		4230	5558	1328	31
16(12)		5854	7562	1708	29
17(20)		12151	15664	3513	29
18(19)		9475	11911	2436	26
19(16)		18562	22107	3545	19
20(15)		5775	6595	820	14

Alternative top 20 with scrappage sales removed:

Pos	Marque	2008	2009	Diff	% Change
1	Land Rover	1034	2414	1380	133
2	Mercedes-Benz	2560	5890	3330	130
3	Renault	3012	6733	3721	124
4	Nissan	2928	5914	2986	102
5	Hyundai	852	1497	645	76
6	MINI	1723	2797	1074	62
7	BMW	5785	8390	2605	45
8	Kia	1571	2210	639	41
9	Volvo	2014	2774	760	38
10	Toyota	4443	5547	1104	25
11	Fiat	2566	3139	573	22
12	Mazda	2600	3166	566	22
13	Honda	3632	4095	463	13
14	Citroen	4230	4713	483	11
15	Skoda	1764	1954	190	11
16	Vauxhall	12151	12933	782	6
17	Audi	5775	6119	344	6
18	Peugeot	5854	6149	295	5
19	Volkswagen	9475	9393	(82)	(1)
20	Ford	18562	18333	(229)	(1)

Hopefully this displays a positive message about the underlying state of the industry and, even though it’s not an exact science, it’s certainly a more positive picture than recent months.