As usual, Fiesta, Corsa, Focus and Astra dominate the country's best sellers for September. Presumably these sales figures continue to be skewed by big fleet orders each month? Or does Jo Public still tend to buy Vauxhall and Ford with his/her own money? I don't think so!
- Surprising that KIA or Hyundai, or even Toyota, can never seem to get a car in to the top 10 sellers?
- Focus sales kept up with Astra, and that's the old Ford model versus the new Vauxhall!
- Whose buying Insignias?! (Fifth place)
- BMW 1-series in 10th! I recall that the 3-series used to get in to the top 10 occasionally; are 3-series buyers down-sizing?!
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I suspect it's rental fleets ? These are cars that private motorists tend to buy 'nearly new' when the fleets offload them and that most user-chooser company car drivers avoid due to high lease costs from their (related) depreciation (BMW 1-Series excepted).
It is also very regional in my experience, years ago when I lived in the NE of England Vauxhalls were very popular (so the Astra), in Surrey I can't think of anyone with one (apart from Zafiras). again with the Insignia, at one time all of my colleagues had Vectras, now we have more choice or opt-out I cannot think of anyone with one.
I'm not sure that BMW supplies rental fleets although I've seen Merc A/B/C Class and Audi A3/4s on rental fleets of late.
Last edited by: idle_chatterer on Thu 7 Oct 10 at 06:24
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A few years back BMW made a big point of "high retained value" after 2 or 3 yrs giving lower than expected leasing costs This encouraged lease companies and dealers to do bigger deals @ BIGGER discounts.
Bigger discounts meant some fleet deals leaked to "private punters" which hit higher margin private sales in BMW dealerships. Punters walked into showrooms saying "match that"...........
BMW then retreated from so much discounting ( and selling to discounters who supplied private punters) but the cat was out of the bag.........retained values /exclusivity are not now so good (although much better than Vx & Ford etc).
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F-B, I agree, certainly in Dec '08 when I ordered my company 330d I 'reverse engineered' an estimate of the cost to the leasing company and reckoned they were getting a 17% discount at the time (simple process, take the VAT off the list price and multiply the monthly lease cost by the number of months in the lease term and add an estimate of maintenance, add a bit of margin and look at the difference).
Of course the car market was in a parlous state at the time, possibly soon to be repeated too I'd suggest ? BMW's sales had crashed in 3/4Q 2008. At the time a 335d was being offered for a lower monthly lease than a 330d so BMW were really discounting these (much higher BIK so probably not selling to company car drivers).
I notice that you can't get a BMW on Drivethedeal, also there's the question of the expensive optional extras, these skew depreciation calculations on BMWs (and their competitors) don't they ?
Personally I think that nearly-new Fords are a great bargain and excellent cars, VW dealers seem to want premium money for de-fleeted Golf VIs and Passats which is good (for them) if they can get it ;-)
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>> As usual, Fiesta, Corsa, Focus and Astra dominate the country's best sellers for September. >>Presumably
>> these sales figures continue to be skewed by big fleet orders each month? Or does
>> Jo Public still tend to buy Vauxhall and Ford with his/her own money? I don't
>> think so!
Strip out the Avis, Hertz, Europcar etc from the Fiesta, Corsa, Focus & Astra sales............I bet the bulk are with day-hire companies.............gone are the days when private companies had fleets of identical Astras, Escorts,etc etc - even the lowest fleet car the first driver can often select from a range of similar cars and not just Red or Beige of 30 years ago.
Many years ago the 500 car order from Co A specified 400 Cortinas (1300/1600 say),50 Cortinas (2.0/2.3 litre), 50 Granadas - a captive market for say Ford for 3 years.
Now the same Company need 500 cars - they lease them through a Finance Company who in turn have major contracts with Ford, Vx, VW, Nissan - so the mix of the 500 car order of yesteryear is now much more varied - maintenance etc is farmed out to the manufacturer/3rd party fleet management so Company A no longer needs such a large fleet management in-house watching 000s of invoices for repair/maint/servicing but merely a fleet manager/accountant that signs off the monthly rentals and test drives every car under the sun in order to ensure his company gets a deal.
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Looking at at the overall year-to-date figures shows:
Audi +13%
BMW +11%
Citroen +10%
Fiat +4%
Ford -7%
Honda -14%
Hyundai +28%
Kia +37%
Land Rover +39%
Mazda +5%
Mercedes +10%
Mini +10%
Nissan +24%
Peugeot +13%
Renault +83%
Skoda +28%
Toyota -10%
Vauxhall +6%
VW +13%
Which raises the following:
Is Ford's policy of higher prices/less sales/more profit working?
Honda - the next Saab/Volvo?
What are Renault doing right (or did they have a very bad 2009)?
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Honda -14%
Jazz - sells, Civic (?) over style, Accord (competing against BMW/MB price) and sells in low numbers,
Pretty expensive hybrids have not caught on here - a good diesel will beat economy of many hybrids in real world driving.
No Sports car, No MPV(FRV dropped), No entry level Civic similar to 3 door of 10-15 years ago
No competitor to Kia Ce'ed/Hyundai I20 / I30 like the 2001-2006 Bread van Civic
Honda has products that sell in other countries but do not sell in volume here - Accords/Legends sell in USA in volumes, Jazz with better choice of engines and cheaper prices sell inFar east
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>> What are Renault doing right (or did they have a very bad 2009)?
Probably a mix of one of the best looking ranges of cars on the market (IMHO), and a recent improvement in their reliability reputation, not that it could have got any worse from a couple of years ago. ISTRC the new Megane came out very well in a recent reliability survey, and the fit and finish of the latest stuff is unrecognisable from a few years back.
One of my colleagues has a 10 plate Laguna Coupe in a sort of graphite grey metallic. It is almost achingly pretty.
Last edited by: DP on Thu 7 Oct 10 at 11:10
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Agreed, DP. There's one where I work too, and in that grey it looks like something from a perfectly French film of 1968. It makes me want to open all the windows and cruise along a straight road lined with poplars to a riverbank picnic of ripe Camembert and charentais melon.
Perhaps I'll find out whose car it is and casually enquire in a year's time if it's been reliable, although somehow I doubt rush hour on the M4 will live up to the fantasy.
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If Renault can improve their reliability stats I'd buy one some day. French cars are very good interior wise and women tend to love them very much.
I think in next few years, Hyundai/Kia will take place of current Honda/Toyota perception.
Surprised at Landrover's figure!
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"Agreed, DP. There's one where I work too, and in that grey it looks like something from a perfectly French film of 1968. It makes me want to open all the windows and cruise along a straight road lined with poplars to a riverbank picnic of ripe Camembert and charentais melon."
I can almost smell the untipped, smouldering Gitane...
A lot of the Insignias I have seen are sporting Enterprise rental stickers on their tailgates, same as late Vectra Cs - must be a long term deal.
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Looks like Ford maybe losing sales to BMW - when I was picking up my car on Oct 1 - there were six other cars going out the same day. BMW Motorrad are shifting in some numbers mainly at the expense of Japanese makers who have priced themselves out of the market. i noticed when I bought the RT that the VFR1200 was stupidly expensive in comparison (centre stand was extra !) - Honda have now added over a grand's worth of extras to the original bike. We're no longer Treasure Island.
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I am surprised FIAT haven't done better than they have. I think the problem is its only really the 500 that sells in big volumes. The Punto and Panda are common but they don't sell as well is the i10 or Fiesta.
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>> >> What are Renault doing right (or did they have a very bad 2009)?
>>
>> Probably a mix of one of the best looking ranges of cars on the market
>> (IMHO>>
I think Renault had a very poor 2009, and so almost any sales now will be an improvement.
As for Renaults being good looking??
Twingo: hideous, compared to the brave original
Clio: average
Megane: above average, coupe especially so
Laguna (hatch): sooo bland
Laguna (coupe): very nice
Scenic: average
Espace: good, but past it in other ways now.
(All IMHO ;-) )
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>> Clio: average
Not sure about the normal one but the Cup 200 or whatever it's called, the new one, wow! What a lot of fun for the money. Simple design everywhere except under the bonnet.
Nissan relationship having benefits? I remember feeling the same way about them, good adaquate cars.
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One thing about the September sales figures is that for the first time in (how many years?) Ford have not been the top sellers overall, and nor has Vauxhall.
Volkswagen (in their various guises from Skoda to Bentley) were top sellers. In fact, it is probably the first time ever that a 'foreign' manufacturer has topped the charts, if one calls Ford and Vauxhall 'British'.
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September's best-sellers - observations... - idle_chatterer
