HYUNDAI Car (UK) Ltd is celebrating its best ever sales year, with 37,611 sales and a 1.47 per cent market share in 2004 - ahead of SEAT, Skoda, Mitsubishi, MG, Suzuki and Kia. And the company is not resting on its laurels, setting an ambitious target of more than 40,000 sales for 2005.

Hyundai's 2004 growth, up 16 per cent on the previous year, was in the a market that was down by 0.5 per cent, making the company's sales even more remarkable. Top performer was the Getz with 15,797 registrations, the highest number of any one model Hyundai UK has ever sold in a year (the previous record was the Accent with 15,729 sales in 1997).

For the first time Hyundai has sold more than 7,000 4x4s; with the new Tucson proving especially popular since going on sale in August. David Walker, Hyundai Managing Director, said "Our plans for 2005 are ambitious in what we expect to be a flat market year on year, but we have put in place the groundwork to achieve it.