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.
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