You bought fewer cars in the UK in January

We’ll get the headline news out of the way first. In January 2018, UK buyers purchased 163,615 brand new cars. In January 2017 – last year, you'll note – there were 174,564 new cars sold. So numbers are down.

The SUV segment was the only one to see any growth, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) telling us a fifth of all new car registrations last month were for these so-called ‘dual purpose cars’.

Diesel sales are down. Massively. Petrol and ‘alternatively fuelled vehicles’ are up. A bit.

However, digging into the numbers reveals some interesting stories. Such as the fact that Ford sold 19,654 cars in January. In the UK. The Fiesta remains the UK's biggest seller, with over 8,000 sold last month alone - double the second best selling car in January, the VW Golf.

Lotus? They sold 12 cars, McLaren sold 53, and Aston Martin sold 100. Meanwhile, Ssangyong sold 187. That’s right. Ssangyong sold more than Lotus, McLaren and Aston combined.

Just 94 people bought Infinitis, 235 people bought Jeeps and 110 of you thought it prudent to purchase a brand-new Maserati, while 277 are currently in honeymoon periods with their brand new Alfa Romeos.

Elsewhere, Merc edged out BMW and Audi with 11,891 cars sold in Jan, and Vauxhall and Volkswagen were practically neck-and-neck at 12.5/12.6k cars sold.

Bored of numbers yet? Here’s a final one. Chevrolet sold… one. One car. Awww.