New Car Sales Up in March

New car sales in the UK saw a further rise in March according to the latest industry figures, they have gone up by a substantial 26.6% compared with the same period in 2009.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) have said that there have been 397,383 new cars registered in the UK in March, branding the new ’10 registration plate that was introduced at the beginning of the month.

The good figures are being treated with caution however, as March last year was a notoriously bad month for the industry, in which figures well be 30% against 2008’s numbers.

The SMMT now believe that demand for cars is going to continually increase for the foreseeable future, however actual sales may fall slightly now that the UK scrappage scheme has come to a close, the scheme had previously offered buyers a £2000 discount on new cars if they scrapped a car older than 10 years old.

The scrappage has accounted for 12.2% of the sale that have gone through in March.

March has traditionally been one of the better months for car sales along with September, as new number plates are introduced at these times.

"The UK motor industry has enjoyed a better-than-anticipated first quarter of 2010," said Paul Everitt, SMMT chief executive.

"A strong March performance was underpinned by the scrappage incentive and improving demand in the fleet sector.

"The coming months will remain challenging and headline registration numbers are expected to dip.”

The scrappage scheme did provide a much need boost for the car industry after poor sales figures triggered by the recession, however the figures were still nowhere near as good as 2008, when in March there was over 450,000 new car sales.

2009’s figures were reflected all around the world as the global financial crisis took its toll on people’s spending.

Posted at 10:24AM Apr 09, 2010 by Marc Stenton in The Economy  |  Comments[0]