Vauxhall knocked Ford off the top of the UK new-car sales list last month, a rare occurrence in the Blue Oval’s 28-year leadership of the chart. Even for February, traditionally slow as motorists wait for March’s new number plate, buyers were scarce – 15.7 per cent down on February 2004.

But Vauxhall was celebrating after its sales total of 11,817 beat arch-rival Ford’s figures by 108 cars.

Vauxhall also had four cars in the top-10 models list, with the Astra second, Corsa third, Vectra seventh and Zafira 10th.

Other manufacturers celebrating a good February were BMW, Audi, Skoda, Saab and MG; while Rover, Lexus, Renault and Seat all suffered a sales drop of more than 40 per cent on February 2004.

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