White remains the UK's best selling colour for the fourth year running.

• White UK’s favourite new car colour for fourth consecutive year, but demand falls for the first time since 2005 – down -2.1%.
• 2016 sees highest number of black cars registered in the UK since 2007 – 542,862.
• Yellow back in top 10, with 12,431 cars registered – double the figure from five years ago.

White maintained its position as the UK’s most popular new car colour for the fourth year in a row in 2016, according to data published today by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). 

More than half a million new car buyers chose the colour last year – a fifth of all registrations – although figures show its popularity is starting to fade with demand falling -2.1%, the first drop since 2005.

White and black are the nation’s two favourite car colours – of the 2.69 million new cars registered in 2016, white (552,329) and black (542,862) took more than 40% market share. 

While white maintained its lead in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, in England it was overtaken by black as the new car colour of choice.

Nationally, the third and fourth most popular colours were grey and blue, both gaining market share. Meanwhile, yellow cars appeared in the top 10 for the first time since 2013 at the expense of mauve, which dropped to 11th place.

Regionally, black topped the chart in the South East while also overtaking white as the favourite new car colour in East Anglia and the West Midlands. 

However, white continued to be most popular across the rest of the country, with buyers in the South West, East Anglia, East Midlands, Yorkshire and the North all following the national trend.

Car colours: Biggest winners and losers in 2016

Going up

• Pink may still be a niche colour choice, but last year demand grew 82.7% to 3,527 units.
• A 44% rise in demand for Bronze cars saw a record 8,902 people spec the colour in 2016.
• Turquoise’s popularity grew fourfold last year, from just 792 registrations in 2015 to 2,718.

Going down

• Is brown’s time in the top 10 coming to an end? Demand fell -40.1%, dropping it one place to ninth.
• Appetite for beige fell -27.6% to under 10,000 for the first time since 2000 with 8,426 cars registered.
• Silver saw the biggest volume decline, falling 22,209, with 273,220 buyers choosing it compared with 843,870 in its heyday back in 2004.

Ssangyong has to make staffing changes and split into more regions due to huge increases in sales.

With sales up by 117% last year, SsangYong enjoyed its best performance in 2015, and was the second fastest growing new car franchise in the United Kingdom.

In preparation for further growth, SsangYong Motor UK is strengthening its sales operation, starting by expanding its territories to four.  These will now comprise the North of England & Scotland, the Midlands, South East England and the South West.

Two new dealer commercial managers have also been recruited.  David Rose will take responsibility for the North of England & Scotland, and Justin Lamba will look after South East England.  Meanwhile, Andrew Cookson remains in charge of the Midlands, while Kevin Griffin moves to the South West.

“This is a very exciting time for SsangYong,” says Paul Williams, CEO of SsangYong Motor UK.  “After a couple of years constructing firm foundations for the brand, we are now building the team to manage our future growth, which will come from increased vehicle and parts sales and an expanding dealer network.”

David Rose, 54 has experience from both retail and manufacturer sectors, and held senior roles at Drive Automotive, Reg Vardy PLC, and as national sales manager at Mitsubishi Motors.  Davidlives in Darlington.

Justin Lamba, 50, joins SsangYong with sales, business development and customer support experience from a number of manufacturers and service providers including DaimlerChrysler, Daihatsu and Mondial Assistance, and most recently from the healthcare sector.  He lives in Kent

A new Aston Dealership to open in the South West, the Dick Lovett Group will open its new Bristol Showroom soon.

• Brand new dealership will service South-West region of UK
• Facility will be operated by Dick Lovett group
• Prime location will offer sales and servicing of the full range of Aston Martin models

Aston Martin will celebrate the opening of a brand new dealership this summer when Aston Martin Bristol opens its doors to customers in the south-west of the UK.

The new dealership – located in Cribbs Causeway, close to Junction 17 of the M5 motorway – is the first Aston Martin dealership for the Dick Lovett Group.

Aston Martin Bristol will cover the entire south-west of the UK, offering new and used Aston Martins for sale, along with a full service centre, creating more than 20 new jobs in the process.

The new 27,000 sq ft showroom will offer the full range of sports cars and customers will have the opportunity to activate ‘Q by Aston Martin’ on all new purchases to create a unique configuration for their car.

Like every Aston Martin dealer, the new business will offer an unrivalled quality of service and expertise to its customers.

Marcus Blake, General Manager, UK and South Africa said: “2016 is going to be an exciting year for Aston Martin and we are delighted to be working alongside the Dick Lovett Group, in opening a new state-of-the-art facility in Bristol this summer. We are confident the Aston Martin Bristol team will provide our valued customers in Bristol and the South West Region an exceptional service that will meet all their needs and exceed their expectations.”

Lynn Campbell, Managing Director, Dick Lovett Group added: “We are delighted to be working alongside Aston Martin, an iconic marque of unrivalled heritage. The opening of our new state-of-the-art facility this summer, in our 50^th year, will make 2016 even more special. The facility has been uniquely designed, nestled into Laurel Hill, and reflects Aston Martin’s core design philosophy and craftsmanship. We are dedicated to providing new and existing Aston Martin owners with a service which surpasses their expectations.”

Infiniti grows with a new dealership in the South West of England, situated in Bristol, the hub of regional growth.

• New Infiniti centre to open in Bristol
• First Infiniti Service Partner to open in Exeter

Infiniti has announced the introduction of a new centre and a new service partner, to cover customer sales and aftersales requirements in the South West of England from January 2016.

Infiniti Centre Bristol, part of the Motorline Group, is expected to be operational from late January 2016. Located on the Bath Road the centre will utilise a temporary structure until the full redevelopment work, to meet with the Infiniti Retail Environment Design Initiative (IREDI) standards, has been completed.

Glen Obee, Chairman of Motorline Infiniti Centre Bristol, said: “We are pleased to be joining Infiniti at this time just as the brand is starting to introduce many new and exciting products into its portfolio. The Infiniti Q30 will appeal to a far wider audience and we are looking forward to welcoming our customers to the new car and the Infiniti Brand.”

Providing a ‘closer to home’ aftersales support service, Infiniti will be adding several Service Partners across the UK. These Partners are designed to complement the Infiniti centres by providing a more local aftersales service expected by both private and fleet customers.

The first aftersales support centre, opening up in January 2016, will be Service Partner Exeter. The facility will be incorporated within the Nissan JFE dealership located on Grace Rd, Central, Exeter and will provide a full customer support process for all Infiniti products. Personnel at the Service Centre have been specifically trained in the Infiniti customer service program to ensure the standards expected by Infiniti customers are continually maintained.

The new facilities join Infiniti just as the brand registers new sales performance records in the UK, as well as globally. In January 2016, the new Q30 Active Compact, produced in the Sunderland manufacturing plant, arrives in Infiniti showrooms and is available with four different engines, manual and automatic (dual clutch) transmissions and in both two or four wheel drive formats. Prices start from £20,550.

Later in 2016 the QX30 Active Crossover will arrive, providing a higher stance than the Q30 with more of an SUV like appearance. This will be followed by the two door sports coupe Q60, due to have its first global public exposure at this year’s Detroit Auto show.

MG's 33rd dealership opens within the last 18 months to continue the push for sales in the UK.

MG’s latest new dealer appointment fills one of the top ‘open points’ in an on-going major extension of the brand’s franchise network. Roadworthy Bristol is the 33^rd new MG dealer to be appointed within the past 18-months and almost completes the brand’s dealer map in the south west of England.

The new dealer, which is in one of MG’s top 15 open points, plans to go fully live within the next few weeks, but already has new MG6 and MG3 models in stock and available to view.

MG has the fastest growing dealer network in the UK and it is planned to increase the current number of 64 dealers to around 80 by the end of the year. The expansion of the network is reflected in a huge increase in sales of MG cars.

Last year MG saw the greatest growth in sales of any car company in Britain. Latest data issued by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, the trade body that issues official registration figures, shows that MG sales so far this year are 42.46 per cent ahead of the same period last year.

  

Roadworthy, a long-established family-run business, is now searching for a new specialist MG Sales Executive and more new jobs could be created in the future as the MG business grows.

Steve Hoare, the firm’s Managing Director, is a fully trained technician who started as an apprentice working on MGs, Rovers and Triumph before setting up Roadworthy 32 years ago. He still has fond memories of servicing MGBs and Midgets.

Steve’s brother, Chris, later joined the business and is the After Sales Director. Steve’s wife, Alison, and sister-in-law, Debbie, also work in the firm.

The company now has a staff of 18 and is based in Fishponds Road, Fishponds in north east Bristol, close to the M32. Roadworthy’s territory will cover the whole of Bristol and the surrounding towns and villages, including Clevedon, Nailsea, Portishead, Kingswood and Portbury.

Steve said: “We haven’t got our MG signage up yet but we are already getting enquiries and interest from people who have spotted our new MG6 and MG3 models and are keen to find out more.

“I can understand their enthusiasm because the latest generation of MGs are just fantastic. They offer the best value-for-money of any car on the market and MGs just stand out from the crowd. It’s great to be associated with a brand that has created so much interest and everybody is talking about.”

Chris added: “MG is such a well respected brand and there is an underlying feeling of goodwill towards it. I can see MG doing really well here in Bristol. It’s fired us with a passion to make MG great again.”  

MG continues to search for more dealers throughout the country to join the franchise. Matthew Cheyne, MG’s Head of Marketing, said: “Roadworthy Bristol is a very welcome addition to our fast-growing network and Bristol was very high on our priority of key open points.

“But we are still seeking new dealers in cities and towns across the country including Nottingham, Leeds, Edinburgh, Swansea, Lisburn, Liverpool, Aberdeen, Southampton and Worcester.”

Audi takes top three spots in fastest selling second hand cars in April 2015.

Three Audi variants proved to be the fastest selling cars on Auto Trader in April. Figures from the country’s leading digital automotive marketplace revealed a clean sweep for the German car maker, however regionally the data painted a very different picture.

In four regions, the 2012 Nissan Qashqai topped the list of speedy sellers, with both diesel and petrol variants performing well. However this strong regional performance was not quite good enough to elevate either car into the national top ten.

“The April data continues to demonstrate the importance of pricing to the live retail market to optimise speed of sale,” commented Karolina Edwards-Smajda, Auto Trader Trade Solutions Director. “On average cars in the top ten were 99% aligned to their optimal price position, based on our comprehensive retail price intelligence.

“But the regional figures also underline the need to adopt a local view to demand and sourcing strategy based on regional desirability. The 2012 Citroen DS3, for example, may have been the fastest selling car in Yorkshire, but it only appeared in 178^th place nationally.”

Auto Trader will publish monthly figures for the top ten fastest selling cars on a monthly basis from now on.

Top ten fastest selling cars (national) - April

	Model	Variant	Days to sell	Price position	Average retail price
1	Audi Q7	2013 Audi Q7 SUV Diesel Automatic	22	99.01%	£37,004
2	Audi A4 Avant	2013 Audi A4 Avant Estate Diesel Manual	23	98.98%	£20,823
3	Audi Q5	2012 Audi Q5 SUV Diesel Manual	23	97.72%	£22,976
4	Mercedes-Benz SLK	2013 Mercedes-Benz SLK Convertible Diesel Automatic	24	98.02%	£22,951
5	Nissan Note	2012 Nissan Note Hatchback Petrol Automatic	24	97.90%	£7,623
6	Toyota AYGO	2012 Toyota AYGO Hatchback Petrol Semi-Automatic	24	99.95%	£6,354
7	BMW 1 Series	2012 BMW 1 Series Hatchback Petrol Automatic	24	100.99%	£16,945
8	Ford Focus	2013 Ford Focus Estate Petrol Manual	24	97.77%	£14,477
9	Volkswagen Polo	2012 Volkswagen Polo Hatchback Petrol Automatic	24	99.49%	£9,699
10	Mercedes-Benz B Class	2012 Mercedes-Benz B Class Hatchback Diesel Manual	24	98.94%	£14,446

Fastest selling car in each region - April

Region	Variant	Days to sell	Price position	Average retail price
East of England	2012 Nissan Qashqai Hatchback Diesel Manual	25	98.99%	£12,552
East Midlands	2012 Vauxhall Astra Hatchback Diesel Manual	24	98.50%	£9,533
London	2012 Ford Focus Hatchback Petrol Manual	16	94.87%	£8,895
North East	2007 Vauxhall Corsa Hatchback Petrol Manual	17	95.90%	£3,437
North West	2012 Peugeot 208 Hatchback Petrol Manual	18	97.68%	£7,465
Northern Ireland	2014 Seat Leon Hatchback Diesel Manual	37	105.13%	£13,115
Scotland	2012 Nissan Qashqai Hatchback Diesel Manual	15	96.64%	£11,735
South	2012 BMW 1 Series Hatchback Diesel Manual	22	103.03%	£13,886
South East	2014 Mercedes-Benz A Class Hatchback Diesel Automatic	23	97.80%	£21,522
South West	2012 Nissan Qashqai Hatchback Diesel Manual	24	101.42%	£12,593
Wales	2014 Ford Fiesta Hatchback Petrol Manual	30	95.95%	£10,354
West Mids	2012 Nissan Qashqai Hatchback Petrol Manual	15	99.81%	£11,860
Yorkshire	2012 Citroen DS3 Hatchback Petrol Manual	18	96.89%	£8,900