Car Makers Champions League 2009

Decembers’ new car registration figures are in so we can take a look at the final table for 2009. Who won the league? Who made it into Europe? Who got relegated? All will be revealed but firstly let’s take a look at the Car Makers Premier League for December.

This month’s Car Makers Premier League (based on the SMMT figures for UK new car registrations in December 2009) is, on the surface, very encouraging with all but one of the top twenty manufacturers posting an increase on December 2008. It has to be said though that December last year was a bad month and was already down 21.2 percent on December 2007.

Overall the market was up 38.9 percent with a total of 168,942units being registered in the month and the SMMT has revealed that 20.8 percent of December registrations were down to the scrappage scheme.

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 yet again it’s been another excellent month for the Hyundai Kia Automotive Group with Kia taking over the top spot from Hyundai with a whopping 316 percent increase on December 2008. The surprising thing is that Hyundai have slipped to 4th after being leapfrogged by Nissan (up from 4th last month) and Skoda (up from 11th).

The big movers this month are, as we mentioned, Skoda and Mazda (up from 14th to 5th). VW also had a good month improving their position to 12th from 18th.

Bad news this month for Land Rover who could not sustain their recent excellent figures and drop out of the top 20 with 2053 units shifted. Taking their place for the final month of the year is Seat who rocket back to 8th. The worst performer this month by a country mile is Vauxhall who drop down to last place (from 17th) with a 22 percent drop on last December. Other than that everyone was in positive territory with the top 12 positions all outperforming the overall market.

Car Makers Premier League December 2009

POS	Manufacturer	December 2008	December 2009	Diff	%
1(2)		1169	4858	3689	316
2(4)		1937	6284	4347	224
3(11)		1653	4878	3225	195
4(1)		1280	3335	2055	161
5(14)		2166	4716	2550	118
6(9)		1703	3464	1761	103
7(6)		30571	5459	2401	79
8(-)		1394	2477	1083	78
9(15)		3828	6600	2772	72
10(10)		2317	3859	1542	67
11(3)		3139	5208	2069	66
12(18)		10469	14948	4479	43
13(8)		4442	6095	1653	37
14(7)		5080	6688	1608	32
15(16)		5212	6762	1550	30
16(13)		6365	7866	1501	24
17(19)		18188	21732	3544	19
18(22)		3407	4046	639	19
19(20)		4753	5014	261	5
20(17)		19058	14920	(4138)	(22)

Let’s now take a look at the final table for 2009 and check the standings of the various top 20 manufacturers we have followed throughout the year. With the scrappage scheme accounting for a 5th of all new car registrations in 2009 there’s no doubting what a bleak picture we’d have been painting had it not been introduced.

Champions – Hyundai

Consistent performer throughout the latter stages ending up with an amazing 102 percent gain on 2008

Champions League – Kia, Nissan

Again big beneficiaries of the scrappage scheme turning in a 62 and 17 percent increase respectively.

Champions League Playoff – Fiat

A good performance with a 9 percent increase on 2008

Europa league Playoff Round – Volvo, Seat

Surprising performance from Volvo given the uncertainty surrounding the brand and a steady, albeit erratic, performance from Seat flitting in and out of the top 20 all season but ending up with a 2 percent increase on 2008

Europa League 3rd Qulaifying Round – Skoda

It’s the last of the positives with Skoda turning in a negligible 0.5% increase on last year

Relegated to the Championship – Peugeot, Vauxhall and Renault

No real surprises here. Concern about GM Europe has impacted Vauxhall’s sales and Renault, despite a late surge, has suffered from a very poor start. Unlucky for Peugeot as it could so easily have been BMW facing the drop.

Car Makers Champions League 2009

POS	Manufacturer	2008	2009	Diff	%
1		28036	56726	28690	102
2		31324	50637	19313	62
3		66336	77924	11588	17
4		55325	60337	5012	9
5		33358	34857	1499	4
6		29397	29987	590	2
7		37100	37253	153	.5
8		322514	316369	(6145)	(2)
9		40736	39866	(870)	(2)
10		105717	102612	(3105)	(3)
11		74883	72281	(2602)	(3)
12		49858	47934	(1924)	(4)
13		100845	91172	(9673)	(10)
14		179189	161137	(18052)	(10)
15		83805	74819	(8986)	(11)
16		81237	72450	(8787)	(11)
17		113132	98683	(14449)	(13)
18		118701	102574	(16127)	(14)
19		298912	237840	(61072)	(20)
20		89570	63174	(26396)	(29)

So that concludes the league for 2009…now let’s see what 2010 has to offer us in a post-scrappage world. Should be interesting.