Mercedes-Benz posted 7.4% growth, with its C-Class featuring in the top 10 best sellers and support from significant growth in sales of the E-Class ahead of its mid-life revisions, rising demand for its AMG sports models and the launch of the new A-Class. 

Marcus Breitschwerdt, president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz UK, said: “We begin 2013 re-energised, with great momentum and as the fastest-growing performance brand – a great start and one everyone in my team at Mercedes-Benz UK will be working hard to sustain.”

Peugeot grew registrations by 5.9% to 7,714 units, boosted by its new 208 hatchback, 3008 crossover and 5008. 

Neil Moscrop, its sales director, said: “We are confident that with a healthy order bank our sales success will continue”.

The fallers

Ford led the month’s market, with 19,640 registrations, almost half of which were in the retail market, however its total sales were down 2.1%, or 421 units, compared with January 2012. 

Alongside the ever-popular Fiesta and Focus, B-Max, C-Max and Kuga  achieved growth in their respective segments.

Fellow market giant Volkswagen’s sales were almost flat, just 29 cars short of the same month last year, and Renault’s registrations fell 15.4% or 432 units.

Interestingly, coinciding with the launch of low-cost brand Dacia, other budget brands suffered the worst of the decline. Proton sold just two cars, 91.3% down, while MG took a 71% drop to 31 registrations, and Chevrolet dropped 66.2% to 698 units.

Subaru, which has recently decided to stop importing the Impreza, suffered a 53.1% decline in registrations to 105 units, and SsangYong and Perodua both declined by 34% to 28 and 23 registrations respectively.

The executive car market was not immune either. Infiniti’s registrations fell 51.5% to 16 cars while a 38.3% drop at Alfa Romeo resulted in 332 registrations and Lexus’s registrations fell 27.5% to 537 cars.