Seat’s scorching sales in flaming June

Upwardly mobile Spanish car maker SEAT is celebrating another flurry of sales successes with news that it has notched up new car records for the month of June, the second quarter of 2011 and the entire year to date.
 
The latest statistics from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show that SEAT’s June total of 3,072 vehicles equates to a 1.68% market share, up a whopping 32% on the same month in 2010 and, separately, an all-time record for the month.
 
Meanwhile SEAT’s share of the market for the second quarter of 2011 stands at 1.70% – another all-time record for the brand in that period and another clear indication that SEAT’s exciting mix of sporty, stylish, practical and great value models is appealing to more and more UK buyers.
 
Predictably, perhaps, the cumulative effect of these sales successes is a third record.  At 1.80% SEAT’s share of the new car market for the first six months of the year is another all-time best.
 
All the good news comes against a decidedly more gloomy backdrop for the UK car market as a whole. So while SEAT’s sales soared 32% last month versus the same period in 2010, the market as a whole was down six per cent.
 
Dig a little deeper into June’s sales statistics and SEAT’s performance gets even more convincing.  While the retail market was down 15% last month, SEAT’s retail sales jumped by a quarter.  Similarly, fleet registrations in the market as a whole may have slipped by three per cent in June but SEAT fleet sales were a massive 40% up on the same month in 2010.
 
Leading the sales charge is the stylish SEAT Ibiza family which, in its three distinct bodystyles of SC, 5dr and ST, has attracted comfortably more than 10,000 buyers into SEAT showrooms so far this year.
 
Second in SEAT’s sales chart remains the sporty Leon five-door hatch which has grabbed more than 5,000 sales.  Meanwhile, the Spanish brand’s third best-seller so far this year has been the Exeo saloon and estate pairing which nudged Altea and Altea XL into fourth spot with year-to-date sales of more than 1,400 cars.
 
Reflecting on an undeniably positive first half of 2011 SEAT UK Head of Operations, Richard Harrison, said: ‘These numbers really do speak for themselves, and show that our growth plan is fully on track.
 
‘Our dealer network has experienced record levels of interest and sales across the entire range of stylish new SEATs, and it’s clear that the expanded modern range of cars we offer is connecting with buyers like never before.’