31 December 2012

UK CV Production: 1969-2011


The UK car industry suffered as did much UK industry in latter decades of the 20th century. The car making sector rallied thanks to overseas investment, and other areas such as car design got a reprieve. The effect on the economy was most beneficial, from taxes generated to the trickle down effect to suppliers and ultimately all businesses.

However, CV (commercial vehicle) manufacturing wasn't so fortunate. Van production has fallen away badly, and many truck brands have gone - some bought out by foreign companies and closed. So how did CV production fare in the time frame from 1969 to today? The list below shows:

Make 1969

Make 1979

Make 1989
BLMC 185,400

Ford 167,200

Ford 144,000
Ford 137,000

BLMC 124,700

GM 67,200
GM 102,500

GM 87,700

Rover 44,800
Chrysler 31,900

Ren (Chr) 17,600

Ley-DAF 38,300




Iveco 14,900
Others 8,900

Others 9,200

Others 17,400
Total 465,700

Total 408,400

Total 326,600




Make 1999

Make 2011



Ford 118,300

GM-Ren 73,100



Rover 24,200

Ford 28,200



LDV 13,700

Ley-DAF 14,600



GM 13,300





Ley-DAF 8,100





Others 8,300

Others 5,400



Total 185,900

Total 121,300





With Ford quitting its van production, it will be down to two makers of any consequence. Ownership of many companies has changed so I have tried to keep it as simple as possible. The point is the slide of volume . With GM never guaranteeing anything beyond the current model, and any future investment of note impossible to see this is as good as it will get. I guess the positive note is the car industry could have gone the same way but didn't.


Bedford truck picture source:  click here
Ford Transit picture source:  click here
Leyland-DAF picture source:  click here
GM Vivaro picture source:  click here

17 December 2012

Turkish Car Production: 1970-2011


Car production in Turkey has been rising steadily. No doubt it is cost effective to make cars there, and yet still close to the European market. Ford made small numbers of cars before giving up to concentrate on commercial vehicle, of which it is by far the biggest in the country. GM I believe made the Vectra in Izmir but finished that in 2001. To more than make up for those departures, three Asian car makers opened plants. The two mainstays Renault and Fiat continue to be the main manufacturers.

Below production is shown in five year periods, but the last one only three years. The last period is down even allowing for the difference in length of time, but the economic downturn has caused that. Overall you would have to say car manufacturing in Turkey is doing quite well.

Yr Total Renault Fiat Toyota Hyund Honda Ford GM
70-74 153,100 47,000 79,200 - - - 26,900 -
75-79 289,400 144,200 119,400 - - - 25,800 -
80-84 185,400 93,500 90,100 - - - 1,800 -
85-89 488,700 206,200 246,500 - - - 36,000 -
90-94 1,189,100 470,600 661,100 - - - 21,700 35,700
95-99 1,145,900 444,500 483,200 92,600 37,400 14,900 34,800 38,500
00-04 1,418,300 666,800 359,500 261,700 74,300 46,900 - 9,100
05-09 2,766,700 1,236,200 425,700 695,500 287,700 121,600 - -
10-12 1,216,100 638,100 203,300 174,900 167,200 32,600 - -
Total 8,852,700 3,947,100 2,668,000 1,224,700 566,600 216,000 147,000 83,300

14 December 2012

UK Car Production By Make: 1966-1981


These were the golden years of UK car making. BL had absorbed virtually all British brands by 1968 and looked very strong. Ford models were popular, although GM Vauxhall looked average. Chrysler started this period as the Rootes Group, and ended up Peugeot. Record production volume was achieved in 1972.

But cracks were appearing. From '73, a steady decline ensued, and by the beginning of the 80's, it was bleak. BL in particular was only a shadow of what it was less than a decade earlier. UK car making was at risk and could have gone altogether. That didn't happen but could have so easily.

Yr Total BLMC Ford Chrys GM Vx Leyland Other
66 1,603,700 627,300 466,200 171,900 172,800 160,900 4,600
67 1,552,000 561,200 440,700 181,200 196,900 165,500 6,500
68 1,815,900 818,300 553,700 189,100 244,800 See BL 10,000
69 1,717,100 830,900 531,600 173,900 171,700 - 9,000
70 1,641,000 787,700 448,400 217,000 178,100 - 9,800
71 1,741,900 886,700 366,600 281,600 199,100 - 7,900
72 1,921,300 916,200 546,700 263,900 184,000 - 10,500
73 1,747,300 875,800 453,400 265,400 138,400 - 14,300
74 1,534,100 738,500 383,700 261,800 136,900 - 13,200
75 1,267,700 605,100 329,600 226,600 98,600 - 7,800
76 1,333,400 687,900 383,200 144,600 109,100 - 8,600
77 1,327,800 651,100 406,600 169,500 93,200 - 7,400
78 1,222,900 611,800 324,400 196,400 84,000 - 6,300
79 1,070,500 503,800 398,700 103,000 58,800 - 6,200
80 923,700 395,800 342,800 125,300 55,000 - 4,800
81 954,700 413,400 342,200 117,400 69,900 - 11,800
Tot 23,375,000 10,911,500 6,718,500 3,088,600 2,191,300 326,400 126,900
Avg 1,460,900 682,000 419,900 193,000 137,000 163,200 13,150


10 December 2012

UK Car Production By Make: 1982-1996


The early eighties saw the UK car making industry at it's lowest in thirty years; the time of rebuilding after the war. Now it was on another rebuilding, it's battered image of poor quality, industrial unrest and appallingly complacent management. In this period BLMC became Rover Group, GM got its act together, Peugeot shifted from Chrysler and Rootes product to its own, and the Japanese companies arrived. Land Rover is low as it does not include commercial sales.

Overall, the 1982-1996 went from a sorry state to one with some optimism. It wasn't as good as it was in the seventies and never will be, but better than it could have been. The car industry could have gone the way of ship building, but clawed its way back to some respectability.

The lists below start with the biggest producer in 1996 and go down to the smallest.

Yr Total Rover Ford GM Vx Nissan
82 887,782 369,800 306,600 112,700 -
83 1,044,683 433,200 318,700 126,500 -
84 908,184 371,400 273,800 117,100 -
85 1,048,085 450,900 317,700 153,600 -
86 1,019,086 390,000 346,300 161,900 -
87 1,142,787 450,700 386,700 183,900 -
88 1,226,888 450,100 375,500 176,500 56,700
89 1,299,189 434,800 382,600 208,300 77,000
90 1,295,690 417,400 329,600 256,300 76,400
91 1,236,991 360,000 339,300 259,000 124,700
92 1,291,993 339,100 302,100 319,100 179,000
93 1,375,593 356,300 271,800 273,900 246,300
94 1,466,894 390,900 269,100 289,900 204,900
95 1,532,195 374,400 273,900 262,200 215,300
96 1,686,196 376,300 328,000 297,700 231,600
Tot 18,460,901 5,965,300 4,821,700 3,198,600 1,411,900
Avg 1,230,727 397,687 321,447 213,240 176,488

Yr Toyota Honda L Rover Peugeot Jaguar Other
82 - - 13,300 56,200 22,000 7,100
83 - - 12,200 120,500 28,000 5,500
84 - - 11,900 95,100 33,300 5,500
85 - - 14,200 67,100 38,400 6,100
86 - - 14,200 58,400 41,400 6,800
87 - - 20,800 45,500 48,000 7,100
88 - - 24,000 82,300 51,900 9,800
89 - - 31,800 107,200 48,100 9,300
90 - - 47,300 116,500 41,900 10,200
91 - - 35,700 88,000 23,000 7,200
92 - 1 39,700 85,800 20,600 6,500
93 37,300 32,100 50,500 72,900 29,600 4,800
94 85,500 42,800 71,800 74,400 31,400 6,100
95 88,400 91,100 99,500 78,400 41,000 7,900
96 117,000 105,800 96,900 85,100 38,600 9,100
Tot 328,200 271,801 583,800 1,233,400 537,200 109,000
Avg 93,771 90,600 38,920 82,227 35,813 7,267

07 December 2012

Ford UK Production By Model: 1979-2002


Ford started assembling cars in the UK in 1911, and came to an end in 2002. Well 2001 but a few were made the following year. I would like to see manufacturers publishing data about sales and manufacturing for years gone by, but you have to find it yourself. So here we have British Ford production from 1979.


In the statistics below, the Orion figures are included with the Escort as they were after all the same car, one a saloon (sedan) and the other a Hatchback. The Fiesta commenced production in 1979, so the data represents total production in the UK.

Yr Total Fiesta Escort Sierra Cortina
79 398,700 13,800 185,600 - 199,300
80 342,800 33,300 125,900 - 183,600
81 342,200 51,800 150,200 - 140,200
82 306,600 42,000 137,900 39,900 86,800
83 318,700 58,400 132,400 127,900 -
84 273,800 69,400 121,400 83,000 -
85 317,700 88,300 148,900 80,500 -
86 346,300 109,900 143,200 93,200 -
87 386,700 108,100 185,400 93,200 -
88 375,500 93,800 180,600 101,100 -
89 382,600 109,600 188,800 84,200 -
90 329,600 186,900 117,600 25,100 -
91 339,300 212,100 127,200 - -
92 302,100 153,500 148,600 - -
93 271,800 121,300 150,500 - -
94 269,100 135,500 133,600 - -
95 273,900 137,200 136,700 - -
96 303,500 181,900 121,600 - -
97 289,500 192,200 97,300 - -
98 293,400 194,000 99,400 - -
99 251,200 158,400 92,800 - -
00 153,100 122,800 30,300 - -
01 69,800 69,800 - - -
02 12,900 12,900 - - -
Tot 6,950,800 2,656,900 2,955,900 728,100 609,900
Avg 302,200 115,500 140,800 91,000 152,500

Production numbers from 1968- 1978 can be found by clicking here.

04 December 2012

US Light Truck Production By Make: 1993-2011


The once 'Big Three' dominated light truck making in the US has diversified. Sure, they still lead but so many others have joined the party, such is the popularity of such vehicles in the 'States.

113 million light trucks have left US factories over the nineteen years covered, nearly 6m per annum. Amazingly, over all that time, Ford has made 36.4 million units and GM 35.5m. Recent years have dragged the average down, but the trend is now upward.

The listing from left to right is based on 2011 production:

Yr Total Ford GM Chry Hon Toy BM Hyu Nis Merc Sub Mit Maz Isu
93 4620 1750 1618 933 3 114 - - 146 - - - 56 77
94 5360 1945 1843 1142 36 134 - - 190 - - - 70 66
95 5344 1953 1852 1144 33 124 - - 191 - - - 47 68
96 5640 2205 1840 1184 29 138 - - 191 - - - 53 69
97 5897 2146 2066 1265 25 175 - - 165 18 - - 37 62
98 4823 2197 1978 137 25 254 - - 116 69 - - 47 90
99 6961 2347 2393 1528 23 333 2 - 206 79 - - 50 82
00 6865 2404 2230 1350 21 400 45 - 269 80 - - 66 84
01 6359 2142 2056 1192 17 425 85 - 198 80 71 - 93 73
02 7097 2239 2434 1332 112 445 100 - 188 88 71 - 88 34
03 7406 2212 2535 1363 252 453 110 - 200 84 65 47 85 31
04 7475 2263 2415 1340 236 518 109 - 372 74 71 22 55 28
05 7337 2135 2160 1322 359 539 105 - 453 96 87 32 49 13
06 6578 1735 1942 1204 368 506 66 62 396 174 81 22 22 11
07 6682 1698 1866 1246 426 588 129 117 307 174 81 20 30 10
08 4776 1171 1270 811 434 430 161 84 169 153 64 9 20 3
09 3416 1075 771 397 332 340 122 107 113 91 55 4 9 1
10 4897 1303 1119 669 529 486 158 214 162 125 114 6 12 -
11 5484 1521 1161 912 474 451 276 237 176 146 115 11 4 -
Tot 113017 36441 35549 20471 3734 6853 1468 821 4208 1531 875 173 893 802
Avg 5948 1918 1871 1077 197 361 122 137 221 109 80 19 47 47

The brand figures are for all trucks, not just light ones, but seeing as I left off the big truck brands, they are almost exclusively light truck sales.