Car Makers Premier League – March 2010

It’s time once again for the Car Makers Premier League where each month we take a look at the top 20 manufacturers in terms of units registered and how they compare with the previous month. Who are the Chelsea’s, Man United’s and Arsenal’s at the top and the Portsmouth’s, Burnley’s and Hull’s bringing up the rear? At the end of the year who will be crowned champion? Who will drop out of the top 20 as the year unfolds and which high achievers will be promoted?

Continuing on with the season and March’s stats (based on the SMMT figures for UK new car registrations in March 2010) are still encouraging with all of the top twenty manufacturers posting an increase on March 2009. The headline figure for the month is a 26.6% increase but it should be remembered that the same month last year was down 30.5% on March 2008. Overall the top 10 positions all outperformed the market this month.

March was the last month for scrappage and it still had a big impact with the SMMT revealing that just over 12% of the cars being registered in March were done so through the scheme. April means the industry standing on its own two feet again so it will be very interesting to observe how car manufacturers and their dealer networks manage the transition to a post scrappage marketplace.

A closer look at the table this month reveals a shuffling of positions at the top with the first three manufacturers all swapping places. Storming back to the top with a 145% increase on March last year, equating to an extra 9,023 units, is Hyundai. Up into 2nd from 3rd is Renault who have really turned things around and recorded a 105% increase on last year. Down from 1st in 3rd is Hyundai’s stable mate Kia with a not too shabby 93% increase on March 2009.

The table this month seems to have opened up into a few “mini leagues” as behind the top three we have four manufactures in the 66 – 74% increase range, Land-Rover (back into the league this month at the expense of Seat whose 5,069 units means they just drop out of the top 20 manufacturers by units registered), Nissan (up from 17 in February), Skoda and Volvo.

Following up are the final three manufacturers who outperformed the market as a whole, Mazda (a good month, up from 19th position in February), Fiat and Mini. Then we are into the bottom half of the table and it is bad news this month for BMW who drop 11 places to bottom managing only a 5% increase on last year. The other biggest faller this month was Mercedes-Benz dropping from 8th to 17th with a 14% increase on March 2009.

So that’s it, scrappage is no more and April’s figures will be eagerly awaited by all concerned. Stay tuned as we reveal the movers and shakers throughout the year as we move into, as Sir Alex Ferguson puts it, squeaky bum time!

POS	Manufacturer	March 2009	March 2010	Diff	%
1(2)		6218	15241	9023	145
2(3)		10227	20919	10692	105
3(1)		6346	12277	5931	93
4(-)		6027	10514	4487	74
5(17)		8788	14780	5992	68
6(5)		4030	6754	2724	68
7(4)		4624	7683	3059	66
8(19)		7734	10384	2650	34
9(7)		8001	10709	2708	34
10(14)		5976	7919	1943	33
11(6)		17412	21288	3876	22
12(11)		10755	13025	2270	21
13(10)		24440	29209	4769	20
14(16)		52289	62075	9786	19
15(15)		16250	19136	2886	18
16(13)		15624	18033	2409	15
17(8)		12231	13943	1712	14
18(20)		13005	14076	1071	8
19(18)		40000	43119	3119	8
20(9)		15654	16478	824	5