Car sales rise for the 26th consecutive month

UK car sales are outstripping even the experts’ predictions as the SMMT today confirmed that April 2014 was the 26th consecutive month that demand for new cars has risen in the UK. That news forced the organisation to hastily adjust this year’s predicted UK-car sales from 2.3 million units to more than 2.4 million.

It all signals good news for the strengthening UK economy and things could get even better with new versions of popular models – such as the Nissan Qashqai (pictured) and the Ford Focus – going on sale this year.

Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said: "After the bumper plate-change month of March, the UK car market returned to more modest but still positive growth in April, with new-car registrations up 8.2 per cent to 176,820 units. This marks 26 consecutive months of growth as GDP continues to pick up, inflation falls and wage levels improve.

"As UK economic confidence improves still further and the market continues its upward trend, we have revised our 2014 forecast up from 2.3 million to over 2.4 million registrations. This represents an increase of more than six per cent versus last year."

Many of the usual suspects feature in the latest list of the UK’s bestselling models with first, second, and third being taken by the Ford Fiesta, Ford Focus, and the Volkswagen Golf respectively, while the Vauxhall Corsa took fourth spot and the Audi A3 fifth. The new Nissan Qashqai has already proven to be as resilient as the old model, which was one of the few cars to do well during the recession, by taking sixth. The remainder of the top 10, in order, consisted of the Vauxhall Astra, Volkswagen Polo, Nissan Juke, and the Fiat 500.

You can read road tests – and watch video reviews – of all these cars, including Mat Watson’s drive of the all-new Nissan Qashqai, by visiting the Carbuyer reviews page. Scroll below to see a breakdown of the figures.