October 2012 United Kingdom Auto Sales By Brand

The SMMT says the UK auto industry recorded a 12% improvement in new vehicle sales in October 2012. Ford, Vauxhall, Audi, Nissan, Hyundai, Citroen, Kia, Skoda, Mini, and Fiat were the major brands which posted above-average year-over-year sales improvements. Through the first ten months of 2012, the UK market is up 5%. Twelve of the 15 leading brands have grown at a rate better than the overall industry. 

If many of the UK's top brands are selling so much better than they were last year, why has growth been moderate? For one thing, at Vauxhall, the United Kingdom's second-ranked brand, sales have fallen by 6400 units. But lower-volume mainstream brands like Renault and Mazda, as well as semi-premium players like Volvo and Alfa Romeo, have been a real drag on the overall market's growth.

Click Chart For Larger View

The shrinking Renault lineup has generated a 26,059-unit decline. Mazda is down by 4302 sales. Volvo's 866-unit drop wasn't quite as meaningful but has still brought the Swedes down by 3.1%. Alfa's 3624-unit is dreadful for a brand which only sold 10,266 cars in the first ten months of 2011, but Alfa has very little with which to compete.

GoodCarBadCar has already published a list of October's 10 best-selling cars in the United Kingdom. Two-thirds of the Fords sold in the UK last month were Fiestas and Foci. Two-thirds of the Vauxhalls sold were Corsas and Astras. 52% of the Volkswagens sold were Golfs and Polos. And 72% of the BMWs sold were of the 3-Series and 1-Series variety. And the Qashqai represents half of all Nissan UK sales in October.

Brand rankings are in the table below. Click the market share chart for a larger view; it offers a different look at the industry, one which shows the VW Group collecting one out of every five UK new vehicle sales in October.

Rank	Automaker	October 2012	%  Change	Year To Date	YTD  % Change
#1	Ford	20,740	+ 12.3%	245,109	+ 5.2%
#2	Vauxhall	18,023	+ 12.6%	197,721	- 3.1%
#3	Volkswagen	13,480	+ 11.3%	160,200	+ 3.0%
#4	BMW	9959	+ 10.8%	107,651	+ 8.0%
#5	Audi	9232	+ 21.8%	110,622	+ 10.7%
#6	Nissan	7197	+ 12.7%	91,716	+ 9.7%
#7	Peugeot	6888	+ 10.2%	88,033	+ 4.6%
#8	Hyundai	6861	+ 40.7%	62,980	+ 16.7%
#9	Mercedes-Benz	6522	+ 10.2%	79,923	+ 12.6%
#10	Citroen	5888	+ 26.5%	64,286	+ 7.8%
#11	Toyota	5179	+ 11.3%	74,068	+ 18.0%
#12	Kia	4837	+ 13.2%	57,736	+ 21.5%
#13	Skoda	4759	+ 61.7%	46,281	+ 17.9%
#14	Mini	4265	+ 29.2%	42,401	+ 2.3%
#15	Fiat	3960	+ 39.0%	43,740	+ 18.1%
#16	Land Rover	3465	+ 13.8%	42,312	+ 33.4%
#17	Honda	3352	- 31.4%	47,496	+ 6.8%
#18	Renault	3271	- 48.6%	33,640	- 43.7%
#19	Volvo	3050	+ 48.7%	27,300	- 3.1%
#20	Seat	2851	+ 29.4%	33,294	+ 7.2%
#21	Mazda	1208	+ 4.8%	23,921	- 15.2%
#22	Suzuki	934	+ 18.8%	21,898	+ 23.5%
#23	Jaguar	845	+ 18.5%	11,984	- 0.5%
#24	Porsche	636	+ 16.7%	6594	+ 28.3%
#25	Chevrolet	568	- 28.5%	12,260	+ 12.8%
#26	Alfa Romeo	527	- 33.0%	6642	- 35.3%
#27	smart	510	+ 40.9%	4549	+ 3.6%
#28	Lexus	504	- 8.5%	7571	+ 12.8%
#29	Mitsubishi	473	- 5.4%	5430	- 38.9%
#30	Jeep	339	+ 178%	2011	+ 12.3%
#31	Chrysler	159	+ 288%	3091	+ 268%
#32	Abarth	118	+ 66.2%	1057	- 8.6%
#33	Subaru	103	- 41.5%	1848	- 21.4%
#34	Bentley	98	+ 40.0%	1075	+ 16.7%
#35	Aston Martin	80	+ 40.4%	818	- 10.0%
#36	Ssangyong	67	+ 71.8%	755	+ 963%
#37	Infiniti	59	+ 5.4%	433	+ 54.6%
#38	MG	37	+ 147%	668	+ 176%
#39	Maserati	33	- 8.3%	273	- 21.3%
#40	Perodua	22	- 47.6%	365	- 25.7%
#41	Saab	16	- 73.3%	231	- 94.4%
#42	Proton	5	- 75.0%	202	- 48.9%
#43	Lotus	2	- 50.0%	122	- 56.6%
---	-----	-----	-----	-----	-----
	Volkswagen Group	31,056	+ 22.0%	358,066	+ 7.9%
	Ford Motor Company	20,740	+ 12.3%	245,109	+ 5.2%
	General Motors	18,591	+ 10.6%	209981	- 2.3%
	BMW-Mini	14,224	+ 15.8%	150,052	+ 6.3%
	PSA Peugeot & Citroen	12,776	+ 17.1%	152,319	+ 5.9%
	RNA Renault, Nissan & Infiniti	10,527	- 17.8%	125,789	- 12.4%
	Hyundai-Kia	11,698	+ 27.9%	120,716	+ 18.9%
	Daimler AG	7032	+ 12.0%	84,472	+ 12.1%
	Toyota UK	5683	+ 9.2%	81,639	+ 17.5%
	Fiat Group & Chrysler-Jeep	5136	+ 31.5%	56,814	51,440
	Jaguar-Land Rover	4310	+ 14.7%	54,296	+ 24.0%
	Honda	3352	- 31.4%	47,496	+ 6.8%
---	-----	-----	-----	-----	-----
---	Total	151,252	+ 12.1%	1,771,861	+ 5.0%

Source: Automakers & SMMT

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