The number of vehicle variants on offer in the UK car market has doubled in the past decade.

There are now reported to be 351 models on offer from 62 manufacturers' brands available in the UK, with 397 body styles and no less than 3,042 model variants, compared to just 1,3003 ten years ago.

Dr Peter Wells of Cardiff Business School 's Centre for Automotive Industry Research says this increasing variety is both a testimony to the ability of the industry to create diversity, and the apparently insatiable demands of the market for that diversity.