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2013 UK automotive sales highest since 2007

By Damion Smy Motor Industry 07 January 2014 10:48 The UK car market is showing further buoyancy with 2,264,737 sales in 2013, up from 2,044,069 in 2012. The 10.8% increase makes the UK the best performing market in Europe, exceeding its forecast by posting its highest sales figures since 2007. Top of the charts once again is the Ford Fiesta, which sold almost 13,000 additional units than in 2012, with its stablemate, the Ford Focus, graduating to the runner-up spot to push the Vauxhall Corsa third.

New Mercedes A45 AMG has 105 years of 4WD on its side

With the new Mercedes A45 AMG on the horizon – complete with 4WD – Mercedes chart the history of all wheel drive on their vehicles. We tend to think of 4WD road cars as a modern innovation, and certainly very few 4WD road cars hit the road in a mainstream way much before the 1980s (the Jensen FF was hardly mainstream before someone points out that was in the 1960s). But the history of 4WD goes back, certainly in the case of Mercedes, a surprising 105 years when Daimler built the Dernburg-Wagen, a 4WD vehicle that not only got all-wheel drive but all wheel steering too.

New car sales see record growth period

ANOTHER rise last month has taken UK car sales to their longest-ever period of growth. A total of 194,032 new cars were registered in May – a 7.7% rise on the May 2013 figure, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said. The increase last month was the 27th consecutive monthly rise – beating the previous record of 26 months of growth between May 1987 and June 1989.