December 2012 And 2012 Year End United Kingdom Auto Sales By Brand

Not Their Biggest Seller, But Land Rover’s Defender Is Positively British

Residents of the United Kingdom registered 2.04 million new vehicles in the twelve months of 2012, a 5.3% improvement over 2011. Car registrations in the UK haven’t been this high since 2008 when, at the time, sales had reached what was thought to be a low point.

December 2012 was predictably the third-lowest sales month of the year. We won’t spend much time analyzing December numbers, but it should be noted that BMW outsold Volkswagen in the final month of the year. Among major brands, BMW’s 35% year-over-year increase in December was topped only by Kia, Honda, and Fiat.