Crisis-hit Rover shattered its sales record by taking a huge 13.47 per cent share of the April new car market more than double its share the previous month.

Only Ford made more than Rover Group's 22,665 sales last month and the Rover 25 was April's top-selling model the first time since December 1995 that a Rover has topped the list of best-sellers.

The Rover sales boost up 116.5 per cent on March came after a massive nationwide advertising campaign and a series of cashback offers of up to 2,000.

Rover UK managing director John Parkinson said: "In April, we introduced strong offers to assure our customers during this period of ownership uncertainty. "The response has been phenomenal and we are grateful for the support and loyalty expressed, in convincing fashion, by the British public to Rover."

A total of 9,910 Rover 25s were sold last month and Rover's top-of-the-range car, the Cowley-built executive saloon the Rover 75, was fifth in the top-sellers' list with 5,704 purchased.

Alan Pulham, of the National Franchise Dealers' Association, representing car showrooms, said the sales figures should encourage banks to back the Phoenix bid to buy Rover from BMW.

The increase in Rover sales was down to getting the product and pricing strategy right, not to discounting cars to the point at which sales were unprofitable. Mr Pulham said: "It just goes to show that when you get your act together, you can deliver in the market. Rover got the pricing right in April and the dealers delivered. There is a very clear message that Rover has a future if someone will back them." Sir Ken Jackson, general secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union, said: "This could not have come at a better time for Rover. It shows there is still a future for the company.

"It is a massive boost to the huge effort to save Longbridge and the jobs that depend on it."

In contrast, Rover's German owners BMW, which is selling large parts of the company, saw sales dive last month.

BMW sold 3,438 cars in April 2000 a 2.04 per cent share of the market. This compared with its 3.71 per cent share of the market in March 2000 and with a 3.06 per cent share in April 1999.

Negotiations between BMW and the Phoenix consortium were continuing and likely to go on over the weekend.

Phoenix is attempting to raise an estimated 200m.