► VW sales slump by 20%
► Latest fall-out from #Dieselgate
► But UK car market continues to prosper
Volkswagen sales fell 20% in November 2015 as the #Dieselgate emissions crisis continued to bite into the company’s profits. VW sold 12,958 cars last month, down from 16,196 a year earlier – although the evergreen Golf remains Britain’s fourth best-selling car (see table below).
The scandal first broke in September 2015 but after only modest falls in prior months it’s taken a while for the full impact to be felt. The car purchase process takes a while to run through the system, it seems.
A booming UK car market
The slump in VW sales hasn’t dented what’s been a stellar month for the UK industry, according to the latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, however. It reports 178,876 registrations in November 2015, a rise of 3.8% on the same month a year earlier.
And in the year to date, 2015 is up 6.2% with sales of 2,453,426; industry experts at CAP predict that the full year will top 2.6 million, a new UK record.
And Britain’s favourite cars are…
The top 10 selling cars in the first 11 months of 2015 are:
1) Ford Fiesta 124,457
2) Vauxhall Corsa 85,163
3) Ford Focus 78,834
4) VW Golf 68,593
5) Nissan Qashqai 57,565
6) VW Polo 51,725
7) Vauxhall Astra 48,628
8) Audi A3 45,327
9) Mini hatchback 41,705
10) Vauxhall Mokka 40,995