A big shift towards private buyers helped Mazda UK to a record 51,489 sales in 2007, and managing director Rob Lindley is predicting more of the same in 2008.

Lindley points to the fact that Mazda's retail sales were up by 12.7% in 2007 while the retail market overall was only up by 1.7%. "It's quite an impressive figure and we are pretty pleased with it," Lindley said.

Mazda's overall retail sales were 51.2% of its total sales for the year, peaking at 62.2% share in December when Mazda nearly doubled retail sales over 2006. Private sales nationally accounted for 43.5% of total sales, according to figures from the SMMT.