by David Finlay (08 Jan 08)

The UK car market was stronger in 2007 than many forecasters had expected. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders found that its own prediction of new car registrations throughout the year was exceeded by almost 90,000 units - the actual figure turned out to be 2,404,007 units, or 2.5% more than in 2006.

"There is little sign that the US credit crisis or rising fuel prices have affected demand," says newly-installed SMMT Chief Executive Paul Everitt, "and we foresee only limited changes through 2008. The UK economy currently remains resilient and the new car market is ultra-competitive. Car makers will continue to fight hard for every sale and consumers will benefit from unprecedented choice and excellent deals."

The most popular car in the country - as it has been since 1999 - was the Ford Focus, of which 126,928 examples were registered. This was one of only three cars to break through the 100,000 barrier, the others being the Vauxhall Astra and the Ford Fiesta. Completing the UK top ten were the Vauxhall Corsa, Volkswagen Golf, Peugeot 207, BMW 3-Series, Renault Megane, Renault Clio and Vauxhall Vectra.

Among the manufacturers, Ford and Vauxhall were dominant, achieving 348,892 and 331,321 registrations respectively. Volkswagen was next on 197,020, followed by Peugeot, Renault (the only company in this list to have registered fewer cars than in 2006) and BMW.

Several companies found their fortunes changing considerably for the better. Dodge registrations improved by more than 50%, thanks to the introduction of several new models, while Alfa Romeo had a 40% upturn. Chevrolet, MINI and Daihatsu all showed improvements of around 25%, though in the case of MINI this was partly because of a slowdown in production in late 2006 when the factory was redeveloped.

In contrast to the healthy situation at Dodge, partner companies smart and Chrysler registered 27% and 21% fewer cars than in 2006. Other manufacturers experiencing a significant downturn included Jaguar (19%) and the Korean twins Kia (18%) and Hyundai (16%).

The SMMT noted that diesel penetration reached a new record in 2007; 40.2% of the cars registered in this country were diesel-fuelled. Diesels have lower CO2 emissions than petrol cars, and their increasing popularity has helped to drive down the average CO2 level of new cars to a record low of 164.9g/km. That's well below the 189.8g/km figure from ten years ago, but still a long way from the 130g/km which the EU wants to see in place by 2012 (see separate feature).

Cars with CO2 emissions of under 120g/km - pleasing to the EU, cheap to tax and probably exempt from the London congestion charge in the near future - accounted for 5.3% of the market, while those emitting less than 140g/km had a market share of 23.3%.

Still on green matters, the SMMT reports that the average car made in Britain requires half as much energy to build as its equivalent five years ago, saving an estimated 700,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year. And the total combined waste to landfill fell by more than half - from just over 80,000 tonnes to just under 40,000 - between 2000 and 2006.

For 2008, the SMMT foresees little change in the UK market, though it does expect registrations to fall slightly to 2,335,000 units, a drop of 2.9%. Diesel penetration is predicted to reach 41%, and no doubt we can expect news of a further annual fall in overall CO2 emissions.

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