Figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show that new car registrations rose 14.8% in April to 163,357 units, compared with 12 months ago.
Registrations for the first four months of the year (768,555 units) show an overall increase of 8.9% on the beginning of 2012.
Top of the charts was the Ford Fiesta, with 8,083 sales. The Vauxhall Corsa, Ford Focus, and Volkswagen’s Golf were the next best performers.
The Fiesta remains the years’ best seller, amassing 42,392 units sold. Next comes its bigger brother, the Focus, with 31,025 sales.
April also saw the SMMT revise upwards its forecast for the full year to 2.106 million units, from the 2.057 million predicted in January.