News flash. The Society of Motor Manufactures and Traders has revealed that the number of cars in the United Kingdom hit a new high in 2013. The figure, in fact, was a staggering 31,917,885. As such, the number on the road rose by 436,000 compared to the previous year. The Society's Motorparc Census concluded this 1.4% rise - which represented the fastest increase for ten years – could be attributed to two factors. Firstly, 2013 new car registrations were 10.8% higher than the previous year which equated to a further 600 units per-day. The total was 2,264,737 which exceeded the Society's forecast of 2.25 million. Furthermore, motorists were running older vehicles than in the past – perhaps because of economic necessity and perhaps because today's cars are more robust than their predecessors. So, in 2013 the number aged 12 years or more was 11.3% higher than during 2012. The Society's Motorparc Census also showed that the average age of a car rose by twelve months during the last decade (to 7.7 years).

The Society of Motor Manufactures and Traders has revealed that there were 1,453 different models of car on the road last year. The majority of these were built in Germany, but those produced in the United Kingdom were the second most popular. Cars from Spain, France and Japan completed the top five. Of these, the most popular was the Ford Focus which is one of the best selling vehicles of modern  times. In fact, there were 1,462,735 on the road in 2013. This family car was followed by the: Ford Fiesta (1,423,254), Vauxhall Corsa (1,246,650), Vauxhall Astra (1,188,385), Volkswagen Golf (998,645), Renault Clio (680,890), Volkswagen Polo (625,144), Ford Mondeo (562,948), Peugeot 206 (520,562) and Renault Megane (480,498). The most popular car colour was silver (24.9%) then: blue (20.3%), black (18.4%), red (10.9%) and grey (10.8%).

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