7 May 2014

Back to the Future

Car sales in Britain, as notified by Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) have recorded a 26th month of rising sales, the best performance since the late 1980's.

As we come out of recession, again (remember being told that the era of Boom and Bust was behind us!), consumer confidence is increasing and new car registrations are following. These underlying healthy statistics are welcome, and make good reading for all sorts of reasons. 

Behind the headlines the reasons for the continued growth are enhanced consumer confidence, a reluctance to save any money these days as Interest Rates remain low and the need, and desire, to "go green" and replace older vehicles with more fuel efficient models.

The SMMT statistics make for interesting, and encouraging reading as engine technology evolves. 


  • Fuel efficiency: Average mpg has improved 35%, from 42.4mpg to 57.2mpg, since March 2004. 
  • CO2 emissions: Average new car CO2 emissions are 26% lower than a decade ago. In March 2014, 67.2% of the market was below 130g/km, so paid no VED in the first year, compared with 6.5% in March 2004. 
I even remember recently reading that crime statistics are reducing for two main reasons, better car security and the absence of lead in petrol which has helped improve behaviour in children and increase overall IQ!

However the news isn't entirely good. As we have rattled on in these pages before British Car Manufacturers do this country proud and we produce excellent quality vehicles which are helping the Economy grow with strong Export demand, but, the consumers of GB PLC continue to purchase offshore produced cars in preference to locally manufactured products. 

Traditional manufacturers aren't really helping the cause, the most popular cars, by volume, last moth were the Ford Fiesta, followed by the Ford Focus and the VW Golf. We all know the Golf is made in Germany, in Wolfsburg (it's also made in Slovakia), but the Fords are made in the UK so that's okay, right. Well No. The Focus and the Fiesta are made in Spain and Portugal. Ford produce some engines and gearboxes in the UK, but not cars. The next most popular models are Vauxhall's, the Corsa (made in Germany and Spain) and the Astra, made in England (except they've announced plans to move production out of the UK).

Shame.