Car Sales Hungary: 2009

Sales fell in Hungary from 155,000 in '08 to 60,000 in '09, a drop of 62%! Ouch. Another big fall is occurring in 2010 but not to the same degree. However, it must be hurting dealers. Figures vary depending how they are compiled but this is one way:

08 09 Make Sales Share
3 1 Ford 7300 12.1
1 2 Suzuki 6900 11.4
2 3 Opel 6800 11.3
4 4 VW 4700 7.8
8 5 Renault 3700 6.2
6 6 Toyota 3600 6.1
5 7

Regional Car Sales Within A Country

Car sales are published as a total for a country but do not show the variances within. Some of those differences can be marked. For instance, I read that in the USA, Jaguar cars make a third of their sales in just three states, NY, California and Miami. In England, regional differences are striking as the examples below show:

Nissan have double the sales in the North East as the national

The Winners And Losers of 2010

Every year some win while others lose. 2009 had mainly losers due to the overall economic picture but 2010 saw an improvement in most countries. Despite the vagaries of the financial world, a list of winners and losers can always be compiled, even if the up or down is relative to the overall market place. So here are my picks of the winning and losing nameplates of 2010

The Winners:

Honda North American Production 1982-2009

Honda started making cars in North America in 1982, when 1,000 units were manufactured in Marysville, Ohio. The following year was the first full year and 55,000 Accord cars rolled off the production line. The Civic joined it in 1986 and by the end of that year, Accords started to be made in Ontario, Canada. All up, 240,000 cars were made in North America for that year. From there other notable

Car Sales 2009: Scotland

The population of Scotland is about 5.2 million and nearly 190,000 passenger cars were sold there in '09. Currently no cars are made in the country although Hillmans were from 1963 until 1981. The list below is of the rank, brands (top 10), sales, Scottish market share and the figure in brackets is the total UK market share as a comparison:

1 GM Vauxhall 28,900 15.5% (11.9%)
2 Ford 26,500 14.3%

Car Sales 2009: Wales

We'll keep a welcome in the hillside.We'll keep a welcome in the ValeThis land you knew will still be singingWhen you come home again to Wales.

The Principality of Wales, known for fine singing, had 78,000 passenger vehicles sold within it for 2009. Quite good considering the population of just 3 million. The list below is of the rank, brands (top 10), sales, Welsh market share and the figure

Ariel Ltd

The Ariel car company was originally started in 1991 and called Solocrest Limited. It became Ariel Ltd in 2001 and can be found in the English county of Somerset. It is a very small car firm and makes less than 100 cars per year.

The vehicle it makes is the Ariel Atom, lightweight with blistering performance. The one sold in the UK uses a Honda Civic Type-R engine/gearbox for propulsion, while

The Audi A1: A Flop?

Audi has been on a golden run. It has been closing the gap steadily between itself and the two main foes, BMW and Mercedes. It makes more profit per car than either of those two and plans to soon be outselling both of them numerically. Audi's success is based around the cost savings it makes by putting plush interiors inside VWs and Skodas. I'm not saying that cynically, but because it is true

UK Market: 1984 to 2010 Comparison

Back in 1984, things were different in the UK car market. The cars bought for example, comparing the top 10 from 1984 on the left and 2010 on the right (2010 est. – based on SMMT data):

1 Ford Escort 157350 - Ford Fiesta 105000
2 Vaux Cavalier 132150 - Vauxhall Astra 80000
3 Ford Fiesta 125850 - Vauxhall Corsa 79000
4 Aust/MG Metro 117450 - Ford Focus 77000
5 Ford Sierra 113000 - VW Golf 59000

The Cypriot Vehicle Market

Cyprus is the an island in the Mediterranean Sea with people of Greek and Turkish origins. In 1974, the island was divided when a separate Turkish Cypriot area was established in the north.

Car sales details are hard to come by and difficult to tabulate. By my method, vehicle sales were about 17,000 in 2001, slipping to the low teens before jumping to 23,000 in 2004. After remaining fairly

The Best 4 x 4 In NZ For 2010

New Zealand 4WD magazine’s 4WD of the Year award has gone to the Land Rover Discovery, due to its all round abilities. In NZ, it comes with either a 3 litre turbo diesel V6 engine or five litre V8 petrol motor, both connected to a six speed automatic.


NZ 4WD editor, John Oxley said it was “a vehicle that we could shop with, take the kids to school in, tow with and even go to the theatre in.

Number Ones Americas: 2009

A bit slow off the mark on this one, but better late than never. Of the countries that I know car sales of in the Americas, most are led by one of two brands, GM or Toyota. GM is the main brand on the continent but it will need to work hard to maintain that. It lost Mexico and Paraguay in 2009 and will lose at least another in 2010.

GM (7)
Canada
Chile
Colombia
Ecuador
Uruguay
USA
Venesuela

Jeeps To Be Made In Italy

When Fiat took control of Chysler, they saw potential synergies between them. One of them it transpires involves plans to build a Jeep SUV at a plant in Turin, Italy. This will be of great benefit to Fiat as it has under utilised plants at home, although I cannot see any gain for Chrysler USA in this one. Fiat said it would produce a Maserati-brand SUV in Detroit, using the underpinnings of the

German Brands Talk It Up

They say that it is all about perception. It is certainly true when it comes to the masses, who are prone to manipulation. Once people perceive that a car brand is respected, has status and not outrageously priced, then it will sell well. No one seems to understand this better than German car makers. Especially in the premium sector, they realise the need to nurture a marque, to promote it, to

Lotus Into The Future With Gusto

For all of its existence, Lotus cars has been a relatively small, fringe sports car maker. Originator of the brand Colin Chapman was more interested in F1. Of recent times, the Elise got Lotus some decent sales numbers, but not profitability. The new plan is to have more models and go more upmarket, where the profits are to be made.

Current owner Proton has decided to go for broke with the

Tata's Now Profitable JLR

Just after Tata bought Jaguar - Land Rover off Ford in 2008, a world economic crisis struck. Ford had sold largely unprofitable brands and with the downturn, just in time. Ford has gone on to do well so they are happy. How about Tata though? Mr Tata seemed unfazed by it all, saying he was looking to the long term benefits. Well he didn't have to wait long as JLR have quickly and consistently been

Tata's New Electric Vehicle

A Tata Indica Vista EVX an electric vehicle from a team of engineers at the Tata Motors European Technical Centre based at Warwick University, UK. Apparently it will be produced in Coventry, a city known as the centre of UK car manufacturing in times past. Tata already make the car in India as a petrol powered vehicle. It goes on sale in the UK and Europe next year, in the first quarter of 2011.

Ford's Struggle To Stay #1 In The UK

Ford has been number one in the UK for decades. It stopped making cars in England in 2001 but makes millions of engines and does extensive design and research there so supports the UK economy well. The brand it has had to keep at bay for many years is GM's Vauxhall, which cannot quite do enough to dethrone it. Vauxhall makes the Astra and Astra van as well as the Vivaro/Trafic vans but that's

Honda’s Decline In New Zealand

In NZ private buyers pay top dollar and fleet buyers get generous discounts. When the private buyer comes to sell his car, its value had been seriously undermined by large numbers of fleet cars being returned to the used market. Private buyers have shunned the new market, but can be enticed by discounts which most brands offer from time to time.

Honda NZ had a plan. Have the same price for all

Can Fiat Gain Concessions For Italian Production?

Fiat supremo Sergio Marchionne has criticised Italy's poor labour efficiency and industrial competitiveness. He says Fiat doesn't make money from making cars in its home country and it is the overseas factories that make its profit. However, others within Italy say that Fiat is what it is because of the loyal public toward its products. Indeed, in 2009 the Fiat brand had 25.5% of car the Italian

Honda's Insight Hybrid

Honda has introduced a Prius competitor in the Insight. It looks like a Prius but does not have the same sophistication in hybrid technology. The advantage to that is that the Honda product is much more affordable. In NZ, the Prius is a third more expensive.

So is it worth buying a hybrid car such as the Honda Insight? For me, the jury is still out on that. It certainly is a way forward but in

Belgium's GM Antwerp Plant To Close

When GM decided to reduce capacity in Europe, panic ensued. The German government aggressively acted to ensure it wouldn't be there. UK production is already small and perhaps fearing lost sales in GM Europe's largest market saved Ellesmere Port's plant. Poland seemed safe with lower wages, Spain felt vulnerable but it was Belgium where the axe fell (Astra cars are made there). After spending

Sales Figures That Embarrass

There are some sales figures that are embarrassing to certain manufacturers. They won't talk about them for obvious reasons, but I will. All the figures quoted are for the first nine months of 2010.

I'll start with Porsche, a brand recently crowing about sales successes which, considering the ever widening range of vehicles they make, are disappointing. In Denmark, where about 122,000 cars are

Car Statistics Appeal

When I was young, I remember reading a Motor magazine from the UK that had comprehensive car sales in Britain by make. I was fascinated by them. I now use the Internet to find such data for countries everywhere I can. I now have a comprehensive collection of car sales statistics, a small percentage of which I use as a basis for articles I write. Western countries openly publish stats for the

Toyota Retreats In Europe

Toyota has been in aggressive growth mode as it ruthlessly hunted down GM to be world number one. Europe was an area where it was weaker than most, so it set about changing that. Therefore, through the 21st century, it relentlessly gained market share in Europe, and by 2007, reached 5.6% share and nearly 900,000 sales (source ACEA; minus Russia). Since then, it has slipped. For the first nine

Lincoln To Muscle Up

Ford has been remiss in not looking after the Lincoln - Mercury brands particularly well. Mercury is finished but Lincoln will now try to muscle in on other premium brand's sales. The problem Lincoln has it that it is only a slightly more posh Ford, nothing else. It doesn't have the cache of Euro - Japanese marques in that segment, in fact not even compared to GM's Cadillac.

Nevertheless this