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New car registrations rose by more than 12 per cent in October, with 16,308 more cars being registered than in September, totalling over 150,000 news cars for the month.

Fleet sales were up by 4.5 per cent in October and private sales, up by 23.9 per cent, helped drive big increases in the mini- and supermini-segments, which now make up 40 per cent of the UK's total car market.

Small city cars like the Hyundai i10 and Toyota iQ in the supermini-segment saw a 5.8 per cent increase in October and the mini-segment, with cars like the Vauxhall Corsa and Ford Fiesta, saw an increase of 52 per cent.

Unsurprisingly, the Ford Fiesta was October's best selling car, selling 8,058 units, followed by the Vauxhall Corsa at 6,285 units.

Ford also brought in third place, with the Focus selling 5,834 units. Vauxhall again came close with the Astra selling 5,754 units and VW completed the top five, selling 4,158 Golfs.

The BMW 3 Series came sixth with 3,762 units sold, Nissan Qashqai, seventh with 3,567 units and the BMW 1 Series was eighth with 3,029 units.

BMW also enjoyed success with the Mini, selling 2,970 units and finally the VW Polo with 2,952 units was the tenth best selling car in October.

The increase in registrations last month brought total sales for 2012 to 1.77 million units. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders is now forecasting more than two million car sales by the end of the year.