Vauxhall tops the car league

Vauxhall tops the car league
By Edward Townsend

Vauxhall Motors continued its blitz of the British car market last month, capturing nearly 23 per cent of sales, eclipsing BL and posing a serious threat to the dominance of Ford. While the rest of the industry was prepared to praise the American-owned company for its intense marketing, observers stressed that much of last month's success was the result of a high level of dealer incentives. But with the Cavalier model now topping the best-selling league, Vauxhall was making the most of its achievement.

While Ford's market share (down to 26.1 per cent last month) appears to have been most affected, BL's has remained at just over 16 per cent. Total new car sales were up by 14.8 per cent on a year earlier, to a February record of 163,828. For the first two months, sales increased by 5.7 per cent to 325,672. Importers captured 58.6 per cent of the British market against 56.7 per cent in February last year. The leading "traditional" importer was Nissan-UK with 5.5 per cent, followed by Volkswagen/Audi with 4.62 per cent.