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 *
I have listened to your feedback dear readers and will try and add more information about the best-selling brands when I can. This update is brought to you by Express Insurance. Click here for cheap car insurance.
* 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.
UK October 2012 – models:
| Pos | Model | Oct | % | Sep | 2012 | % | Pos | 2011 |
| 1 | Ford Fiesta | 8,058 | 5.3% | 1 | 96,805 | 5.5% | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | Vauxhall Corsa | 6,285 | 4.2% | 2 | 78,760 | 4.4% | 2 | 3 |
| 3 | Ford Focus | 5,834 | 3.9% | 3 | 70,355 | 4.0% | 3 | 2 |
| 4 | Vauxhall Astra | 5,754 | 3.8% | 4 | 52,879 | 3.0% | 5 | 5 |
| 5 | VW Golf | 4,158 | 2.7% | 5 | 54,300 | 3.1% | 4 | 4 |
| 6 | BMW 3 Series | 3,762 | 2.5% | 7 | 38,102 | 2.2% | 7 | 8 |
| 7 | Nissan Qashqai | 3,567 | 2.4% | 8 | 39,432 | 2.2% | 6 | 9 |
| 8 | BMW 1 Series | 3,029 | 2.0% | 11 | 28,157 | 1.6% | 14 | 13 |
| 9 | Mini | 2,970 | 2.0% | 14 | 30,192 | 1.7% | 10 | 10 |
| 10 | VW Polo | 2,952 | 2.0% | 9 | 36,939 | 2.1% | 8 | 7 |
Source: www.smmt.co.uk
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UK October 2012 – brands:
| Pos | Brand | Oct | /11 | 2012 | /11 | Pos |
| 1 | Ford | 20,740 | 12% | 245,109 | 5% | 1 |
| 2 | Vauxhall | 18,023 | 13% | 197,721 | -3% | 2 |
| 3 | Volkswagen | 13,480 | 11% | 160,200 | 3% | 3 |
| 4 | BMW | 9,959 | 11% | 107,651 | 8% | 5 |
| 5 | Audi | 9,232 | 22% | 110,622 | 11% | 4 |
| 6 | Nissan | 7,197 | 13% | 91,716 | 10% | 6 |
| 7 | Peugeot | 6,888 | 10% | 79,923 | 13% | 7 |
| 8 | Hyundai | 6,861 | 41% | 62,980 | 17% | 11 |
| 9 | Mercedes | 6,522 | 10% | 79,253 | 13% | 8 |
| 10 | Citroen | 5,888 | 26% | 64,286 | 8% | 10 |
| 11 | Toyota | 5,179 | 11% | 74,068 | 18% | 9 |
| 12 | Kia | 4,837 | 13% | 57,736 | 21% | 12 |
| 13 | Skoda | 4,759 | 62% | 46,281 | 18% | 14 |
| 14 | Mini | 4,265 | 29% | 42,401 | 2% | 16 |
| 15 | Fiat | 3,960 | 39% | 43,740 | 18% | 15 |
| 16 | Land Rover | 3,465 | 14% | 42,312 | 33% | 17 |
| 17 | Honda | 3,352 | -31% | 47,496 | 7% | 13 |
| 18 | Renault | 3,271 | -49% | 33,640 | -44% | 18 |
| 19 | Volvo | 3,050 | 49% | 27,300 | -3% | 20 |
| 20 | Seat | 2,851 | 29% | 33,294 | 7% | 19 |
| 21 | Mazda | 1,208 | 5% | 23,921 | -15% | 21 |
| 22 | Suzuki | 934 | 19% | 21,898 | 23% | 22 |
| 23 | Jaguar | 845 | 18% | 11,984 | 0% | 24 |
| 24 | Porsche | 636 | 17% | 6,594 | 28% | 27 |
| 25 | Chevrolet | 568 | -28% | 12,260 | 13% | 23 |
| 26 | Alfa Romeo | 527 | -33% | 6,642 | -35% | 26 |
| 27 | Smart | 510 | 41% | 4,549 | 4% | 29 |
| 28 | Lexus | 504 | -8% | 7,571 | 13% | 25 |
| 29 | Mitsubishi | 473 | -5% | 5,430 | -39% | 28 |
| 30 | Jeep | 339 | 178% | 2,011 | 12% | 31 |
| 31 | Chrysler | 159 | 288% | 3,091 | 268% | 30 |
| 32 | Abarth | 118 | 66% | 1,057 | -9% | 34 |
| 33 | Subaru | 103 | -41% | 1,848 | -21% | 32 |
| 34 | Bentley | 98 | 40% | 1,075 | 17% | 33 |
| 35 | Aston Martin | 80 | 40% | 818 | -10% | 35 |
| 36 | SsangYong | 67 | 72% | 755 | 963% | 36 |
| 37 | Infiniti | 59 | 5% | 433 | 55% | 38 |
| 38 | MG | 37 | 147% | 668 | 176% | 37 |
| 39 | Maserati | 33 | -8% | 273 | -21% | 40 |
| 40 | Perodua | 22 | -48% | 365 | -26% | 39 |
| 41 | Saab | 16 | -73% | 231 | -94% | 41 |
| 42 | Proton | 5 | -75% | 202 | -49% | 42 |
| 43 | Lotus | 2 | -50% | 122 | -57% | 43 |
Source: www.smmt.co.uk
Thanks for finally talking about >Best Selling Cars – Matt’s blog
Rolls Royce and Ferrari never give details of their registrations in the UK, which is strange as both companies are apparently doing very well. Why buy a Proton when there are so many cars that sell for a similar price and are much better, for example Skoda, Hyundai and Kia.
Where is Rolls Royce in the brqand-ranking?
@Miguel
I agree with you BMWs are charismatic and excellent cars if not always very attractive, my personal favourite is the 3 Series, I used to own one, it was the best car I have ever had
@Ian
Ian, the most charismatic German car marque to me is BMW. I do not like Audi at all (this marque is quite well regarded in my country because is connected with relaible problems and new rich people without manners) I like few Mercedes models or better only the C and E Class sedan, I think Opel and Ford Germany (Focus, Fiesta, Mondeo) are interesting and have relaible cars I love the Porsche 911 and I hate Volkswagen cars. The most interesting BMW in my perspective is the Serie 5 following by the 3. The X6 is bad, very bad and the X3 & X5 became too popular mainly in the hands of new rich and vain plain persons.
Two BMWs in the top 10 (we are supposed to be in recession!), the 1 Seies is ugly, but is apparently very good, I agree with Miguel some current BMWs are not attractive to look at (they may be very good), for me the worst is the X6, but that doesn’t seems to matter to us British, we love BMWs as the sales figures show. It is easy to get sales of Brands but much more difficult to get more than a top 10 for models. Thanks for the Brands sales, Renault needs the new Clio, but it will not go on sale here until February next year, probably because this is a right hand drive market.
Pretty soon it will be ‘bye bye Proton’ in the UK. I ordered a brochure the other day and it was dated 2008! They obviously deliver more brochures than cars!
@Pedro
Well Pedro, in fact the Serie 1 is not beautiful but to me the Z4, Serie 6, Serie 7 and mainly the X6 are worst in terms of style.
BMW 1 is still looking like a drunk frog ….
just top 10 !!!