Car Makers Premier League - September 2011

It’s time once more for the Car Makers Premier League where each and every month we examine the top 20 manufacturers by number of units registered and see just how they look when compared with the previous month. 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?

September’s statistics (based on the SMMT figures for UK new car registrations in September 2011) revealed that 332,476 of the new 61-plate cars were registered in the month, a decrease of 0.8% (2,770 units) on September 2010. The market is 5% down so far this year and Paul Everitt SMMT Chief Executive is upbeat “The all-important September market outperformed expectations and is less than 1% below last year at 332,476 units.”

In September 2010 the market recorded an 8.9% decrease on September 2009 and was the second lowest volume for the month since 1999 when twice yearly registrations were established.

Overall the top 10 positions outperformed the market this month with Hyundai back at number 1 (a whopping 37% up on September 2010). Next come MINI (slipping from the top spot last month) Skoda and Seat moving up from 9th place last month.

VW stay in 5th with a creditable 18% increase on September 2010 while Kia consolidates 6th position.

The Germans are still not having it all their own way with only 6 of the top 10 manufacturers being German owned this month (Hyundai, Kia, Land Rover and Nissan upsetting the well made and extremely efficient German applecart (or apfelkarren to be precise)

This month it’s actually a welcome back to Land Rover (or घर का स्वागत ) who feature again, this time in 9th position with an 8% increase of 442 units on last September.

The biggest mover and shaker this month is Nissan jumping up from 13th to 7th with an impressive 18% increase on September 2010.

This month the biggest faller is, perhaps not surprisingly, Fiat, recovering from last month’s nosebleed and slipping 17 places from 3rd last month all the way back to the bottom this.

Down at the bottom normal service has been resumed with Renault (a dismal 21% down on September 2010) crawling themselves off the bottom into 19th and Honda still languishing in 18th with a poor 20% decrease on September 2010 when, let’s not forget they were already languishing in 17th place with an equally tragic 17% decline on September 2009. (Car Makers Premier League September 2010)

According to Paul Everitt of the SMMT “We expected 2011 to be a challenging year and we are on track for a full year total of around 1.92 million new car registrations, 5% below 2010. SMMT has revised down its 2012 registrations forecast to 1.96 million units; a reflection of the continued weakness in UK domestic demand and the uncertainty across European economies.”

In other words it’s worse than we thought!

Car Makers Premier League September 2011

Pos	Manufacturer	Sep-10	Sep-11	Diff	%
1(4)		8,431	11,562	3,131	37
2(1)		7,567	9,690	2,123	28
3(2)		5,463	6,950	1,487	27
4(9)		5,382	6,612	1,230	23
5(5)		24,701	29,250	4,549	18
6(6)		8,257	9,729	1,472	18
7(13)		15,767	18,573	2,806	18
8(7)		15,889	18,588	2,699	17
9(-)		5,788	6,230	442	8
10(10)		14,426	15,282	856	6
11(12)		18,673	18,184	(489)	(3)
12(8)		46,389	43,350	(3,039)	(7)
13(17)		18,309	16,902	(1,407)	(8)
14(16)		12,856	11,538	(1,318)	(10)
15(14)		14,636	13,019	(1,617)	(11)
16(11)		42,235	37,472	(4,763)	(11)
17(19)		8,611	7,108	(1,503)	(17)
18(18)		12,176	9,690	(2,486)	(20)
19(20)		14,225	11,245	(2,980)	(21)
20(3)		9,365	7,025	(2,340)	(25)