Last month saw a huge resurgence in new fleet car sales, with a 24.4% rise in registrations compared to January 2008.

There were 72,726 new fleet cars registered in January 2010, a year-on-year increase of 14,280, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders.

SMMT boss Paul Everitt said: “Industry expects another difficult year with the availability of finance, consumer confidence and sustaining demand post-scrappage, key to performance in the second half of the year, but signs of recovery in the fleet and business sectors are encouraging.”

Top ten fleet sellers – manufacturers
Manufacturer Jan ‘09 Jan ‘10 % change
1 Ford 11859 13275 12.0
2 Vauxhall 9876 10456 5.9
3 Volkswagen 4149 6845 65.0
4 Audi 4040 5473 35.5
5 Peugeot 3437 4531 31.8
6 Toyota 3776 3323 -12.0
7 Citroen 1506 3070 103.9
8 BMW 1899 2984 57.1
9 Renault 1485 2732 84.0
10 Hyundai 533 2625 392.5
Top ten sellers – model
Model Jan ‘09 Jan ‘10 % change
Ford Focus 4461 5623 26.1
Ford Fiesta 3781 4254 12.5
Vauxhall Corsa 2383 3433 44.1
Vauxhall Astra 2860 3271 14.4
VW Golf 1391 2881 107.1
Peugeot 207 1219 1872 53.6
Audi A3 1805 1843 2.1
Ford Mondeo 1638 1617 -1.3
Audi A4 1173 1428 21.7
VW Polo 613 1416 131.0