Hints of blue sky as fleet registrations start to recover
Date:
06 October 2009
The fleet new car market showed a glimmer of optimism last month, recording the best year-on-year result so far in 2009.
The fleet market was 13.6% down on September 2008, compared with 25.1% down for the year to date and 21.6% down in August, prompting hopes of a recovery. But the downside for fleet was the diminished share of the market, as the scrappage scheme combined with the new '59' registration plate to see retail sales account for 62.8% of new car registrations. By comparison, the figure was 52.1% for September 2008's change to the '58' plate.
Ford continued its good form of 2009, showing sales up 13.3% thanks mainly to the popularity of the new Fiesta compared with the predecessor that was being run-out this time last year. Vauxhall was down 12.0%, ahead of the market in second place, with all of the top seven manufacturers performing above the market average, while Toyota, Nissan and Mercedes struggled, 34.8, 28.1 and 36.1% down year-on-year respectively. Honda and Renault, just outside the top ten, were down 22.9% and 40.1% respectively.
Top 10 fleet manufacturers – September 2009 | Manufacturer | Sept 09 | Sept 08 | % change | 1 Ford | 26,024 | 22,969 | 13.3 | 2 Vauxhall | 20,210 | 22,973 | -12.0 | 3 VW | 13,438 | 14,729 | -8.8 | 4 BMW | 9047 | 8749 | 3.4 | 5 Audi | 8793 | 8837 | -0.5 | 6 Peugeot | 7162 | 8481 | -15.6 | 7 Citroen | 5928 | 5335 | 11.1 | 8 Toyota | 5412 | 8306 | -34.8 | 9 Nissan | 5289 | 7357 | -28.1 | 10 Mercedes | 5041 | 7884 | -36.1 |
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Top 10 fleet models – September 2009 | Model | Sept 09 | Sept 08 | % change | 1 Ford Focus | 9566 | 7673 | 24.7 | 2 Ford Fiesta | 7784 | 3996 | 94.8 | 3 Vauxhall Astra | 7741 | 7631 | 1.4 | 4 Vauxhall Corsa | 6699 | 5936 | 12.9 | 5 VW Golf | 5815 | 6331 | -8.2 | 6 Ford Mondeo | 4507 | 5300 | -15.0 | 7 BMW 3-series | 3088 | 2278 | 35.4 | 8 Peugeot 207 | 2963 | 3357 | -11.7 | 9 Peugeot 308 | 2921 | 2762 | 5.8 | 10 Vauxhall Insignia | 2902 | 14 | n/a |
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