BRITAIN'S car scrappage incentive has helped drive Hyundai to a double helping of record sales.
The South Korean manufacturer sold more than 11,000 cars in Britain last month - more than 5,000 units up on its previous best monthly total - and also beat its best year's sales total by almost 3,000 units.
During the nine month period, the firm's importer registered 40,578 vehicles as an army of new customers snapped up its models under the new-cars-for-old scheme.
'This is an incredible result, but the fact is that we could have sold twice as many cars in September if we could have received the stock. In the end we simply ran out of stock and time - but I'm happy to say that more ships are now arriving, full of our most popular models and we're rushing them out to customers as fast as we can,' said Hyundai UK said managing director Tony Whitehorn.
Showroom demand described as 'unrelenting' has given the firm's i10 supermini model smash-hit status and he believes the sales rush will continue as a result of the extension of the incentive.
'What we're seeing is amazing, given that we still have a quarter of the year remaining. Obviously, the extension is great news because thousands of people recognise it is a very special offer.
'They will now continue to do so well into the new year, and with the economy still fragile and the VAT increase on its way, the industry and consumers need the extra confidence this provides,' he said.
Also celebrating is Kia, which also hit record sales of 9,772 units in September - the best result for any subsidiary or distributor across Europe and a tally that helped Britain overtake Germany as the company's biggest EU market.
Runaway leader for sales is the Picanto with 3,395 registrations. Hot on its heels is the Rio supermini with more than 2,000 sales during the month.
'It would be wrong to say the scrappage scheme has not helped us, but that isn't the only reason behind our performance. People are looking for attractive, quality products at sensible prices and currently the Kia range proves exactly that,' said managing director Michael Cole.