Defying The Downward Trend

Richard Colby reviews MG’s 2017 Q4 sales, and also their annual performance.

The 2017 new car market slump with registrations down by 5.7% (152,000 units) compared to 2016 will be remembered for a number of things, but most significantly it is likely to be seen as the turning point for new diesel car sales in the UK following years of growth. Diesel had been promoted as the fuel of choice by successive governments since 2001, when the duty on diesel was reduced to help boost sales. The argument in 2001 was that as diesel car engines used 15-20 % less fuel than their petrol counterparts, then they must also produce less C02 and hence have a reduced impact on climate change per mile driven. Encouraging more people to move to diesel cars was therefore an obvious ‘quick win’ in the battle to meet new environmental targets.

In response, manufacturers (including MG-Rover) invested heavily in new diesel engines, with the addition of turbochargers, intercoolers and new injection technologies ensuring that even the most mundane of diesel hatchbacks could match their petrol powered counterparts for performance, while still making fewer visits to the pumps. Then in 2014 a well known and much respected German manufacturer who had been at the forefront of modern diesel engine development was caught cheating.

Five scientists from the University of West Virginia had been carrying out on-road testing of diesel vehicles from three manufacturers in the US and could not understand why one model, a VW, gave constantly high on-road emissions compared to results found in the laboratory. The scientists reported their findings to the California Air Research Board and the rest, as they say, is history.