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BusinessCar Office Blog: 24 July 2007
Date: 24 July 2007
The half-yearly sales figures are a geek's paradise. You'd never believe some of the models that have obviously been found down the back of someone's sofa, or behind a hedge in a storage field somewhere...
Fleet Viper sale
The half-yearly sales figures are a geek's paradise. You'd never believe some of the models that have obviously been found down the back of someone's sofa, or behind a hedge in a storage field somewhere.
The top 100 models and top 40 manufacturers charts are now online, and in this week's magazine, but sometimes what's going on outside the top 100 is as interesting.
Just missing out on the chart in position 101 was the Mini Cabriolet, followed by the Lexus RX, Fiat Panda, Chevrolet Matiz and Saab 9-5, the Swede and the Panda both falling from inside the previous 100.
Further down, BMW's problems were apparent with the Z4 actually outdoing the X3, which would have been considered the more mainstream model, while the X5 only just scraped inside 140, suffering in the change from old model to new. The X5 was flanked by the Renault Modus and Mercedes CLS above it, and Peugeot 807 MPV and Kia Sorento below.
Given that it invented the MPV segment, it's amazing that Renault's Espace now struggles to register inside the top 150 fleet models with a fraction of the sales enjoyed by the Ford Galaxy, VW Sharan and Chrysler Voyager.
In the luxury saloon market, it was amusing that over half a year, nothing could separate the Jaguar XJ and Audi A8, both recording 471 fleet registrations.
Looking further down still, Peugeot's 607 executive saloon was beaten by illustrious fleet models such as the Proton Savvy and Vauxhall Monaro. It was in front of the Fiat Stilo, which has mercifully been put out of its considerable misery with the arrival of the new Bravo. And the less said about the 24 Fiat Cromas registered as fleet sales in the last six months the better.
It did beat the 11 Honda Legends though, which was actually fewer than Rolls Royce managed with the Phantom (16).
And those cars found down the back of a large metaphorical sofa? Among those that recorded just a single, solitary fleet registration between January and June 2007 were much-missed automotive legends including the Nissan Almera and Primera and the Fiat Ulyssee, while various lucky swines were the recipients of the two Rover 45s, and three of each of the 25, 75 and TF models.
Oh, and one lucky begger fleet registered a Dodge SRT-10. Or the Viper as it's also known.
Paul Barker
