2005 UK Car Registrations Down 5 per cent

2005 saw the UK car market record the sharpest decline amongst the EU15 countries. While registrations were strong in December (158.866 units against 144,353 in December 2004), the 8.7 per cent increase disguised what was an undoubtedly tough year.

Germany, Europe’s largest car market, showed the opposite trend, recording an 8.8 per cent dip in December but 1.6 per cent growth over the year. 3,319, 825 new cars were registered in Germany in 2005. France showed the strongest growth in Europe with annual registrations increasing 2.7 per cent to 2,067,818 in 2005, despite slowing 1.4 per cent in December.

In the UK a strong month of December (up 8.7 per cent) was put down to a huge jump in diesel registrations, brought about by the last month of tax breaks for Euro 4 diesel company car drivers.

Much of the blame for the -5 per cent dip in the annual figure is said be down to MG Rover’s closure. According to SMMT analysis “the loss of MG Rover represented the equivalent of 37.4 per cent of the total market’s downturn in 2005 and 98.8 per cent of the drop in the volume of UK-built cars in the year.” Imported cars represented a record 83.0 per cent of the UK market in 2005, up from 81.9 per cent in 2004.

The Ford Focus remained the UK’s best selling car for the seventh year in a row. It was also the top seller in every month of 2005. The Vauxhall Astra took second place, up from sixth in 2004. Small family cars in the lower medium segment rose 32,212 units in 2005, making it the largest segment for the first time. The 4×4 segment also saw growth, up 7,953 units to 187,392. The supermini, lower medium and upper medium segments now make up 78.8 per cent of the market, totalling 1,921,362 units.

The overall slow-down in the new car market in 2005 lay firmly within the private purchase sector. The weaker economy and growing concerns over cost pressures saw the private market fall 123,553 units – down 10.3 per cent. However, large and small fleet sectors both saw increases in December, up 16.2 and 24.8 per cent respectively. Fleet sales made up 48.6 per cent of the new car market in 2005.

The total UK market size of 2,439,717 was the fifth largest market on record.