New-car sales fall for second month
8th September 2010
Sales of new cars in the UK during August were 17% down on the same month of 2009, according to new data.
This is bad news for any car insurance firms trying to increase their own sales.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said 55,305 cars were registered as new last month, adding that sales will continue to fall for the rest of the year.
New-car sales also fell during July this year, which was the first decline for 12 months. However these now-monthly dips are merely the re-emergence of a trend seen before the industry received a pick-up from the previous Government through the car scrappage scheme.
Registration of new cars fell rapidly during the first six months of last year, but once the scrappage scheme came into play, sales began to grow for the remainder of 2009.
The car-scrappage scheme has gone now so the downward spiral will return. But although sales have been worsening over the last two months, the annual rate of growth in new-car sales is so far up 13.2% on 2009.
Diesel-car sales grew to take their biggest-ever share of the market, at 52.6%. Fewer mini, supermini and lower-medium sector cars were being bought during August but more multi-purpose and sports vehicles, executive and luxury saloon cars were bought.
The 10 best-selling cars of August 2010 were, respectively, Ford Fiesta, Ford Focus, Vauxhall Astra, Vauxhall Corsa, BMW 3 Series, Volkswagen Golf, Nissan Qashqai, Vauxhall Insignia, Volkswagen Polo and Audi A3.
Copyright © Press Association 2010
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