Strong month as plate change drives fleet sales
Date:
10 April 2007
Nearly 190,000 new cars were registered to business in March, the first month of the new '07' number plate designation.
The total of 189,884 was 3.8% up on March 2006 and is higher than the traditionally slow months of January and February put together.
The total for the first quarter of 2007 was 326,830, 4.8% up on the first three months of 2006, compared with a retail market 1.2% up.
Chevrolet doubled its March '06 figures, although that's still only 856 units, and Lexus enjoyed a strong March with 64.3% growth. Audi was up 40.9% with only the A8 not up year-on-year, while Honda's Civic was the driving force behind a 34.1% increase.
On the flip side, it was a painful month in fleet for the Koreans, with Hyundai down 24.8% and Kia down 46.7%, while the Swedes also struggled. Volvo dropped 17.5% and Saab 18.2%.
Ford (up 4.2%) topped the chart as usual, in front of Vauxhall (-0.2%), with VW, Renault and Peugeot rounding out the top five in that order, and Audi beating BMW to sixth.
Top 10 Manufacturers - March 2007 | Position | Manufacturer | March 07 | March 06 | % var | 1 | Ford | 32,049 | 30,753 | 4.2 | 2 | Vauxhall | 29,405 | 29,462 | -0.2 | 3 | VW | 16,548 | 14,520 | 14.0 | 4 | Renault | 11,498 | 12,400 | -7.3 | 5 | Peugeot | 11,392 | 11,112 | 2.5 | 6 | Audi | 10,408 | 7386 | 40.9 | 7 | BMW | 10,125 | 9828 | 3.0 | 8 | Toyota | 8084 | 7882 | 2.6 | 9 | Mercedes | 6270 | 5448 | 15.1 | 10 | Citroen | 6230 | 5930 | 5.1 |
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