The total number of new car registrations in 2017 reached 2,540,617 million, down 5.7% on the record year of 2016.
Given the current economic and political uncertainty, that is a fairly encouraging result, although a further fall of 5% is expected in 2018.
From then on, the industry expects the market to stabilise at around 2.4 million registrations per year. Long-term forecasts, meanwhile, are less clear and hinge on the results of Brexit.
ALFA ROMEO - UP
- 2016 market share: 0.18%
- 2017 market share: 0.20%
Alfa Romeo has been drinking in the last chance saloon for so long that the place is running dry. The Stelvio is Alfa’s last shot: if that doesn’t do the trick, the car maker may need a new owner.
ASTON MARTIN - UP
- 2016 market share 0.03%
- 2017 market share: 0.06%
Global sales are up around 30%, thanks to the DB11. The company is making a profit, and there is talk of floating it on the stock exchange. If you can’t afford the cars, how about buying a bit of the company?
Click here to see the top 10 best-selling cars in Britain
AUDI - UP
- 2016 market share: 6.58%
- 2017 market share: 6.88%
Audi is now slightly ahead of BMW in the UK for the first time. This is mostly due to sales of crossovers and, in particular, the Q2.
- 2016 market share: 0.07%
- 2017 market share: 0.07%
Bentley’s rise has temporarily stalled: rising Bentayga sales are only compensating for falling Continental GT registrations. The imminent new Conti GT has work to do.
BMW - DOWN
- 2016 market share: 6.78%
- 2017 market share: 6.77%
BMW is suddenly looking a bit staid. It has been overtaken by Mercedes and struggling to stay ahead of Audi. The new X2 (right) is desperately needed.
Join the debate
Symanski
BMW flat.
6.78% to 6.77% is really just saying sales are flat.
Each brand will attract new buyers, but it seems for BMW that's matched with those leaving their stable. Why is that?
I know of two who have been burned by BMW un-reliability and have bought Audi and Mercedes instead. I myself was seriously bunt by BMW when they have extended a warranty for dreadfully unreliable part in the USA, but not for their European customers. That's how much they care about us!
BMW is not the "German engineer" you believe it is! No company should be rewarded for not standing by their products, and if you don't believe it, do a Google search for "M3 Bimmerboost worst engine ever"
Paul Dalgarno
Symanski wrote:
A sample of 2 people is not representative. The various extensive surveys with thousands of owners are more accurate. Someone whose car is a lemon will generate a lot of noise vs people who are happy. BMW typically end up in the upper middle sector for reliability, so not outstanding, but not terrible. If you’ve ever worked in one you will notice they are very well built, and engineered - they come apart and go back together very well.
I don’t buy BMW at the moment because the interiors are now rubbish in design and quality.
In my sample of 2 BMWs absolutely nothing went wrong in 5 years of 18000 miles per annum driving. My sample of 7 Audi’s had each one affected by an electrical glitch at one point or another.
I don’t buy Audi’s now because only now is the styling moving on, and the minimal changes to admittedly attractive cars put me off foto years.
French cars are something else, and I’ve had three, one was good, the other two were unmitigated disasters, and I’ll never buy French again due to that (sorry to my French friends). They’re aggressively built to cost savings, and that shows big time.
Current Qashqai has been 100% reliable in first year, it’s a bit flimsy in places, and the interior plastics are way too easily marked for family life. If it carries on like this it’ll stay on my list for replacement as it’s a thoroughly nice car to drive every day without being too exciting (god I’m getting old it seems).
abkq
DS's sales collapse is not
DS's sales collapse is not surprising. One can't just apply 'luxury' to something ordinary eg. affixing a chrome strip from bonnet to A-pillar in the DS5 is a weird attention-seeking gesture which doesn't make the car premium. It has a nice interior though.
Fiat's decline is also unsurprising. It still relies on the ageing retro 500, but using the retro template on the much larger 500L & 500X make these cars a caricature. People stay away. Mini uses the same strategy of upscaling but for some reason manages to attract customers.
Good to see both Skoda & Seat on the rise. Can't be easy to promote two somewhat similar budget brands from the same company.
Citytiger
Jaguar
Despite having the XE and XF, and the F-Pace, sell lesscars than Volvo, says it all really, Jaguar need to find a new designer and start making their cars desirable again. The XE and the XF have been failures, without the F-Pace (everyone loves an SUV), Jaguar would probably be in the same bracket as Dacia, when it should be up with Mercedes or BMW.
Symanski
Legendary designer.
Jaguar have the legendary Ian Callum! He will go down as one of the best car designers, if he's not already.
If anything, you have to accredit the turnaround of Jaguar to Callum. Dropping the old, fuddy duddy looks of yesterday's Jaguars for a modern and stylish look. That's what's brought many to Jaguar. Being partnered with Land Rover, however, means they're late to the SUV party, and perhaps you should compare as JLR?
You're right that they're behind other rivals, but the revival of Jaguar continues. I think that's something we should rightly celebrate.
jonboy4969
Citytiger wrote:
What crappola you talk, the XE is selling all it can make running 24 hour shifts, like the XF, less than a decade ago, they were producing three plants worth of product, on one shift only today, they run four uk plants, and Five other plants around the globe producing both J and LR products, with the UK plants all at capacity the XF and XE are everywhere, and sales are creeping up, with the F-Pace, New E-Pace and I-Pace all running, sales will be the highest in it's history, but it is not stopping there, the new XJ and small XA will take it to new levels.So before you make wild and completely inaccurate comments, do some homework first - Ian Callum and his design team, have and continue to win prizes, for design, if they are not that good as you suggest, then they would not win any of the competitions.Give them another decade and there will be another plant in China (possibly Two more) expansion of the plants in the UK where possible, and the possibility of an all new facility, Slovakia will produce all the New defender range, and some jaguar models dependant on scalebility - so in just ten years they have gone from a company thats struggling to one that produces some of the biggest profits around, and some stunning cars too.
Marc
jonboy4969 wrote:
Good post, but did you know JLR have recently built around 6000 too many XE's due lack of demand.
You're right, there will be more plants in China, along with other countries but these WILL come at the expense of UK production facilities, regardless of what information comes from on high.
The group is producing some high Industry margins but these are mainly driven from LR products. Strategically they are also exposing themselves to quite high risk in the long term with their pricing strategy. It's easy when the goings good, but fashions and economics change and can change rapidly, far quicker than product plans can react and JLR's product plan remains wanting. They are in a precarious position when it comes to long term risk management and it's not a position you'd find their main competitors in.
GODFATHER
Marc wrote:
JLR is actually in all markets. jaguar covers the cars while LR cover SUVs. Now Jaguar is fast moving into SUVs with plans for LR to move into cars. JLR has well below production capacity it needs hence the reason for new sites in low cost countries. If sales fall now then they could easily scale back on new sites and bring production in line.
The Germans have become 2 big and that is why they are so scared of the tech companies. They know themselves that companies like Apple and google have much larger customer devotion, probably more then Germans makers combined and so people will dump them in a heart beat. ironically Tesla have already beaten the Germans at autonomy and battery tech but with Apple or Google funding will end the German dominance in the luxury market. Remember Apple is worth more then all the Germans, Volvo and JLR combined
Marc
GODFATHER wrote:
Really... I had no idea.
I suggest you take a look at the variantions of 3, 4 & C of the German three then take a look at the XE offerings and have a think.
[/quote]
The Germans have become 2 big and that is why they are so scared of the tech companies. They know themselves that companies like Apple and google have much larger customer devotion, probably more then Germans makers combined and so people will dump them in a heart beat. ironically Tesla have already beaten the Germans at autonomy and battery tech but with Apple or Google funding will end the German dominance in the luxury market. Remember Apple is worth more then all the Germans, Volvo and JLR combined
[/quote]
Some would argue the German three are too big, others would argue they spread risk.
The tech company issue applies to ALL established auotmotive brands, not just the Germans. Tesla haven't beaten anyone either. They simply decided to develop and produce soley electric vehicles, they created a new brand and exploited a rising, fashionable market.
Paul Dalgarno
Use facts please
XE sales are well down in 2017 in Europe. Terrible for a relatively new model. Look up carsalesdatabase to see the reality.
Despite the fact that Ian Callum has made some of the most stunning cars in the world, the XF is long in the tooth style wise, and the XE is extremely bland inside and out to me (words fail me on how dull the interior is). The A4 outsells it by a factor of 6, and the 3 series by about 5 in Europe. The XE is a sale disaster, and the sales cannot possible justify an ongoing replacement model investment. You’re confusing extremely strong LR sales with the Jag XE and XF which are bombing.
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