UK Auto Sales By Brand - October 2011

Britain's new car market grew 2.6% in October 2011 despite the efforts of 25 brands to pull the market down. Apart from the disappearance of Cadillac, Daihatsu, and Dodge (which combined for 24 sales last October) no decline was worse than the year-over-year plunge reported by Lotus. Down 93%, from 61 sales to just four, Lotus's plans for the future aren't helping the brand now. 

On the flip side, Ssangyong sales rose 290%, an increase which translated to only 29 extra sales this year. Lexus was up 82%. Land Rover sales shot up 63%. Hyundai improved at a 60% clip. Honda and Kia both posted 55% gains. 

None of these brands compare with Ford, Vauxhall, and Volkswagen, at least not in terms of overall volume and outright popularity. Of the three, only Volkswagen has posted a ten-month improvement compared with 2010. Of the three, only Volkswagen failed to post a year-over-year improvement in October. 

No luxury automaker competing in the United Kingdom sold more vehicles than BMW in October 2011. Though BMW sales were down and Audi sales were up, BMW's 1408-unit victory collapsed Audi's year-to-date lead down to 189 units.

Honda beat Hyundai and Toyota but the order is reversed if you consider all vehicles registered so far this year. Land Rover sold more than 2.6 times more vehicles than Mazda. And as you'll see in the market share chart below the rankings, Jaguar/Land Rover owned 2.8% of the overall UK new vehicle market in October. 

There were nearly 135,000 new vehicles sold in the United Kingdom in October 2011. That means Brits bought one new car every time Americans bought 7.6 new cars. Britons have bought approximately 340,000 more new vehicles than Canadians have in the first ten months of 2011. Ford is the best-selling brand in the United States, the United Kingdom, and in Canada. 17.7 of Canada's new car market this year has been owned by the Ford Motor Company. Compare that with 13.8% in the UK and 16.8% in the U.S.

The United Kingdom's October 2011 auto sales output is chronicled below. Keep scrolling for a market share pie chart. Check out last month's UK Auto Sales By Brand post here.

Rank	Automaker	October 2011	%  Change	Year To Date	YTD  % Change
#1	Ford	18,476	+13.0	233,104	-5.5
#2	Vauxhall	16,008	+0.2	204,121	-4.9
#3	Volkswagen	12,106	-5.5	155,565	+3.0
#4	BMW	8985	-10.5	99,712	+8.3
#5	Audi	7577	+14.5	99,901	+13.1
#6	Nissan	6385	+7.6	83,569	+8.4
#7	Renault	6358	-15.2	59,699	-28.3
#8	Peugeot	6253	-0.7	84,153	-11.9
#9	Mercedes-Benz	5916	+19.1	70,987	+10.6
#10	Honda	4889	+55.4	44,453	-19.8
#11	Hyundai	4877	+59.5	53,968	-1.7
#12	Toyota	4655	-11.9	62,773	-18.7
#13	Citroen	4654	-6.3	59,621	-7.1
#14	Kia	4272	+55.1	47,525	-5.5
#15	Mini	3302	+3.7	41,449	+15.1
#16	Land Rover	3044	+63.3	31,728	-2.8
#17	Skoda	2944	+3.9	39,241	+11.0
#18	Fiat	2849	-19.7	37,041	-21.9
#19	Seat	2204	+5.8	31,066	+10.0
#20	Volvo	2051	-36.0	28,166	-14.9
#21	Mazda	1153	-49.9	28,223	-29.6
#22	Chevrolet	794	+10.4	10,867	-9.0
T23	Alfa Romeo	786	-6.8	10,266	+47.7
T23	Suzuki	786	-15.1	17,737	-4.8
#25	Jaguar	713	-11.5	12,050	-13.6
#26	Lexus	551	+81.9	6713	+19.3
#27	Porsche	545	-9.0	5141	-7.7
#28	Mitsubishi	500	-35.6	8883	-16.1
#29	smart	362	-3.5	4391	-34.8
#30	Subaru	176	-14.7	2350	-28.4
#31	Jeep	122	+17.3	1791	+4.3
#32	Abarth	71	-5.3	1156	-5.9
#33	Bentley	70	-17.7	921	+3.4
#34	Saab	60	-84.1	4106	-9.8
#35	Aston Martin	57	-40.6	909	-3.4
#36	Infiniti	56	+51.4	280	+77.2
#37	Perodua	42	-4.6	491	-28.2
#38	Chrysler	41	-50.0	839	-33.7
#39	Ssangyong	39	+290.0	71	-69.1
#40	Maserati	36	+33.3	347	-15.4
#41	Proton	20	-57.5	395	-42.4
#42	MG	15	-6.3	242	-9.0
#43	Lotus	4	-93.4	281	-37.3

Source: SMMT 
Red font indicates declining sales, year-over-year. Luxury auto brands are shown in bold.

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