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Jaguar and Land Rover sales soared by a third last month with British buyers making the most of the Government's soon-to-end scrappage scheme.
Tata Motors, the Indian firm that paid £1.4 billion for the two car brands last year, said Jaguar sales were 5% up in December 2009 compared with a year earlier, with drivers buying almost 5000 new vehicles, such as the XFR sports saloon, during the month.
Land Rover's sales rose 45% to hit 16,340 in December, with the Discovery 4 and Range Rover Sport models performing particularly well. The UK fuelled much of the growth in sales at both marques, with new registrations of Land Rovers increasing by almost two thirds in Britain, and new Jaguar registrations up 41%, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association.
The luxury cars are thought to have benefited from bankers splurging out ahead of their expected massive bonuses.
But during the recession there were fears that the Jaguar and Land Rover marques would not survive, after both brands faced plummeting sales as the global credit crisis hit.
Tata Motors said that sales of all its vehicles - which also include the cheapest car on the market, the £1,400 Nano - were 84 per cent higher in December than a year earlier.
Reader views (1)
Good - British cars made in Britain by Britons. OK - Indian owned, but it keeps us employed and improves the trade balance.
- Dave Davies, Basingstoke, Hants, 18/01/2010 20:20
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