UK October 2012: BMW 1 Series up to best-ever #8 UPDATED

BMW 1 Series

* NOW UPDATED with the Top 43 All-brands ranking! Click on title to see *

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* See the Top 10 best-selling models by clicking on the title! *

Excellent month for new car sales in the UK, bucking the general European trend at +12% year-on-year to 151,252 registrations and bringing the year-to-date total to 1,771,861 units, up 5% on 2011. The entire Top 5 best-selling models stay unchanged vs. September: the Ford Fiesta is in the lead with 8,058 sales and 5.3%, reinforcing its 2012 year-to-date domination at 96,805 units and 5.5%. It is followed by the Vauxhall Corsa (4.2%), Ford Focus (3.9%), Vauxhall Astra (3.8%) and VW Golf (2.9%).

The BMW 3 Series is up one spot on last month to #6 with 3,762 sales and 2.5% while the Nissan Qashqai sells 3,567 units at #7 and is still #6 year-to-date with 39,432 sales and 2.2%. The best performer this month is the BMW 1 Series, up 3 ranks to #8 with 3,029 units and 2% share. This is the 1 Series’ highest ever ranking in the UK and its 6th time within the Top 10 after October 2008 (#10), September 2009 (#10), September 2010 (#10), June 2011 (#9) and August 2012 (#10). Notice also the Mini in the Top 10 for the first time since last June.

Bentley sales are up 40% in October in the UK.

Brand-wise, the Top 16 best-selling brands all gain at least 10% year-on-year this month. Ford leads with 20,740 sales (+12%), ahead of Vauxhall at 18,023 units (+13%) and VW with 13,480 sales (+11%). BMW is up to a brilliant 4th place ahead of Audi while Mercedes is down one spot to #9. Hyundai is up a huge 41% to #8, Skoda is up 62% to #13, Volvo up 49% to #19 while both Bentley and Aston Martin are up 40% year-on-year at #34 and #35 respectively…

Previous post: UK 9 months 2012: Discover the Top 370 All-models ranking!

Previous month: UK September 2012: Mercedes C-Class at #6, Peugeot 208 in Top 10

One year ago: UK October 2011: BMW 3 Series up to #6

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Full October 2012 Top 10 models and Top 43 all-brands Ranking Tables below.