Scrappage Scheme impact felt in June
New car registration data released today indicates that the government’s scrappage scheme is taking effect with news that that while registrations fell 15.7% in June to 176, 264 this was the smallest decline in a year.
However, the majority of the improvement in the market is down to private registrations, where sales have actually grown year on year by approximately 4%. The figures paint a far gloomier picture for business and fleet purchasers however where the market remained depressed with both markets falling by approx 30% year on year.
As expected the scrappage scheme has seen a shift towards cheaper, smaller vehicles with both the mini and supermini segments performing well.
“We are now beginning to see the positive impact of the scrappage scheme translate into new vehicle registrations,” said Paul Everitt, SMMT chief executive. “SMMT expects the pace of improvement to increase in the coming months, but we can already see the industry making steady progress on the long road to recovery.”
Amongst carmakers the situation is equally muddled with Ford not only selling more units than any other manufacturer (by almost 10,000 units) but also saw an increase in like for like sales of 4%, meanwhile Vauxhall the other high volume manufacturer witnessed a 34% reduction in sales (June ’08 – June ’09) to 20,990 units. Other marques performing well in the market include Hyundai (91% increase), Kia (60% increase), and Alfa Romeo (31%) thanks no doubt to a strong offering of smaller cars and some innovative advertising and finance offers.
The top selling car of the last month was the Ford Fiesta, closely followed by the Ford Focus, with the Vauxhall Corsa and Astra some way behind.
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