New car registrations passed last year's total with a month to spare.

Registrations rose 7% to 159,581 units – the best November performance since 2004.

In the first 11 months of this year 2,111,819 cars were registered, an increase of 9.9% year on year and ahead of the 2012 full-year figure of 2,044,609.

The new car market is on target to hit the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders' (SMMT) forecast of 2.25 million registrations for the full year.

Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said: 'Motorists have bought more than two million cars so far in 2013, a tremendous success for the industry on the back of buoyant consumer confidence and innovative new products.

'With the UK economy looking increasingly positive, we can expect strong underlying demand for new cars to continue into 2014, with volumes set to match or surpass those seen this year.'

And the SMMT sees the new car market continuing to grow, but at a slower rate, in 2014 and 2015.

The best-sellers last month (year-to-date in brackets) were:

1 Ford Fiesta 8,796 (113,417).

2 Ford Focus 5,298 (81,791).

3 Vauxhall Astra 5,077 (62,835).

4 Vauxhall Corsa 4,958 (77,861).

5 Volkswagen Golf 4,074 (60,431).

6 Vauxhall Insignia 3,175.

7 Nissan Qashqai 3,046 (47,695).

8 Fiat 500 3,024.

9 BMW 3 Series 2,999 (40,065).

10 Nissan Juke 2,851.

Ultra-low emission vehicles – with CO2 emissions under 75g/km and currently only pure electric and plug-in electric cars – accounted for one in 10 of all alternatively-fuelled vehicles registered in 2013, up from one in 20 in 2011.