UK Car Sales By Brand : 1995-99

The 1995 Rover 200 was a nice looker and it still is

This five year period changed direction of the UK car market drastically. Ford had 21.1% share in 1994, but only 17.7% in 1999. Vauxhall from 16.6% to 13.3%. The big one however was the Rover brand going from 10.9% to 5.0% share! Sales dropped over 100,000!!

BMW bought the Rover group in 1994, when it had become profitable. It presided over a sudden swing to big losses and a market share slump to less than half in five short years!!!! Losing Honda (as a partner to share costs with) seems to have been the big change. Rover was too small to carry the expense of building new cars alone, but BMW didn't seem interested in finding a new partner for Rover after Honda's hasty departure. A serious error that hurt all involved. BMW plowed ahead with a replacement for the 45 model, the cost carried alone by Rover's modest sales volume. No wonder Rover plunged into big losses.

Renault and especially VW were big winners at the time. The three premium German marques were also making large sales gains, while Volvo lost ground to them. The German brands were coming.

95	96	97	98	99	Make	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
1	1	1	1	1	Ford	410,722	396,986	396,353	403,717	387,985
2	2	2	2	2	Vauxhall	294,131	283,989	294,550	282,560	291,598
4	4	4	3	3	Peugeot	143,321	153,242	167,472	181,564	180,676
5	5	5	4	4	Renault	120,485	132,374	159,235	180,319	165,144
7	6	6	6	5	Volkswagen	81,656	114,084	119,767	128,421	154,610
3	3	3	5	6	Rover	211,824	198,702	194,702	160,323	110,122
6	7	7	7	7	Nissan	91,972	93,408	96,172	101,430	94,994
11	10	10	9	8	Toyota	52,310	58,491	70,411	79,298	77,799
9	8	8	8	9	Fiat	70,828	85,948	88,328	92,256	77,080
8	9	9	10	10	Citroen	80,241	76,485	79,527	76,652	72,286
10	11	11	11	11	BMW	55,034	56,840	63,734	64,160	70,932
12	12	12	12	12	Honda	45,772	50,076	55,612	61,048	65,290
14	13	13	13	13	Mercedes	32,694	35,813	42,530	51,973	62,368
16	15	15	14	14	Audi	25,555	30,327	35,524	40,906	40,615
13	14	14	15	15	Volvo	39,654	33,737	40,485	37,585	39,217
15	17	18	16	16	Land Rover	28,183	22,956	22,560	33,596	33,221
21	18	20	17	17	Daewoo	13,169	21,438	21,822	30,449	32,544
19	19	17	19	18	Hyundai	13,948	18,959	25,567	28,608	28,150
17	16	16	18	19	Mazda	16,291	24,273	31,293	29,962	24,540
20	22	25	22	20	Suzuki	13,817	14,195	14,359	19,309	22,034
18	24	24	21	21	Skoda	13,111	13,017	15,750	20,564	21,738
24	20	19	20	22	Mitsubishi	10,823	16,383	22,130	20,938	17,454
23	23	22	24	23	Seat	11,049	13,830	16,753	18,647	17,352
22	21	23	23	24	Saab	11,534	14,886	16,688	19,220	16,909
26	27	27	26	25	Jaguar	8,727	8,401	9,507	11,658	15,483
28	25	21	25	26	Chrysler	5,883	11,624	17,519	16,355	13,682
29	28	28	27	27	Subaru	4,616	5,753	8,162	10,444	11,280
32	29	30	29	28	Alfa Romeo	2,870	5,714	5,896	8,908	9,938
31	32	29	28	29	Daihatsu	3,378	3,536	6,574	9,214	9,381
33	34	34	32	30	Lexus	2,074	2,012	2,054	3,269	6,904
30	30	31	33	31	Kia	4,004	4,919	5,644	2,894	6,385
25	26	26	30	32	Proton	9,800	9,555	11,381	7,269	5,986
36	35	33	31	33	Porsche	1,139	1,490	2,333	3,401	3,707
34	33	32	34	34	Isuzu	1,938	2,419	2,532	2,493	2,974
39	39	36	35	35	Lotus	385	336	978	2,060	2,071
		40	37	36	Perodua			156	905	965
			40	37	GM US				280	581
37	37	38	38	38	RR/Bentley	493	638	878	610	422
				39	Maserati					205
35	36	37	36	40	Ssangyong	1,214	1,100	894	1,251	171
		39	39		Lancia			410	436
27	31	35			Lada	8,259	4,762	1,984
38	38	40			FSO	480	419
					Others	1,982	2,333	1,499	2,450	2,822
					Total	1,945,366	2,025,450	2,170,725	2,247,403	2,197,615

Data source: The SMMT.