May new car sales down
June 4th, 2009 by Richard Aucock
LATEST new car sales figures for May have been unveiled – with sales down by nearly 25 per cent.
But the good news is the scrappage scheme is starting to have an effect, say the SMMT.
Scrappage started on 18 May. Even before then, car dealers were reporting massive increases in interest and showroom traffic.
Since going live, many car dealers say demand has been incredible – and many car manufacturers have exhausted immediate supplies of popular cars.
Paul Everitt, SMMT chief executive, said: ‘While consumer confidence is improving, the UK motor industry is still facing a difficult economic climate.
‘We have seen an encouraging start to the scrappage incentive scheme with 35,000 orders being placed since it was announced, although it will take time to feed into registration figures.’
New car registrations fell 24.8 per cent last month to 134,858 units. And registrations over the first five months of 2009 are down too – at 289,598 units or 27.9 per cent.
35,000 scrap orders
‘The scrappage incentive scheme came into effect on May 18 and since the announcement in the Budget over 35,000 orders were reported to BERR,’ said the SMMT.
‘However, it will take some time for those orders to translate into registrations. As details of the scheme were finalised some consumers may also have been holding off purchasing a car, awaiting the best deal.’
Tags: new car sales, scrappage, SMMT
June 4th, 2009 at 9:29 am
It’ds Ford that is on Fire increasing market share for the month and year to date by more than 2% wow! The question for me is was that because they had the stock on the ground or have they just got a really solid pipeline of orders?