With 4,194 new Kias sold across the UK in May, the Korean brand has recorded its best five month performance ever, selling 652 cars more than it did in throughout the whole of 2007.

Compared to 2009, the increase in sales is 113 percent up on the 14,199 cars sold to this point on 2009. Looking at the monthly figures, 4,194 cars sold in May is an increase of almost 26 percent over the same period in 2009 - after the Government's scrappage scheme had swung into action.

Cutting away the confusion of scrappage reveals a healthy underlying trend for Kia. Non-scrappage sales for Kia accounted for 3,541 of the May total - up 86 percent on May 2009.

Kia has also improved its retail share for the year to date - up by 2.5 percent, from 2.54 percent in 2009 to the current 5.04 percent.

Michael Cole, Managing Director at Kia Motors (UK) Ltd., said "What a great achievement for Kia Motors in the UK. For me this underlines the development that has been going on across the brand. Each new car from Kia is providing more and more reasons for customers to take a fresh look at Kia and the products and services it has to offer.

It's going to be a challenge moving forward, but we always knew it would be. The end of scrappage will have an effect across the whole industry - from June to December last year it accounted for more than 25,000 sales.

But at Kia we remain confident and expect to set a new sales record this year. Not only do we have great momentum but we have the all new Sportage being launched later this year and 2011 will see us launching a whole raft of new cars," added Cole.

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