"MG No.2 for UK Car Sales in 2011"

said "Economia" magazine in June, referring to UK sales growth. (!) No.1 was Ssangyong with 3,256% - MG was only 1,493%.

When you consider it is an accountancy magazine, they really should know better - absolute sales were only 302 and 462 respectively.

More interesting in this top ten are 8. Land-Rover (up 23%, 18,443 sold); 9. Škoda (22%, 17,917); and 10. Kia (22%, 22,331)...

So why measure "growth" as a percentage instead of an absolute value?

If you where investing in MG then would the percentage not be the more important value?

The real problem is choosing two almost random months (using the aproximate period of the orbit of the earth aroud the sun divided by the aproximate period of the orbit of the moon around the earth) to compare instead of using a longer term average.