New car registrations rise for second consecutive month
The market performed better than expected in August, turning a forecast 6.0% decline into a 6.0% increase. This largely reflects the positive impact of the scrappage scheme, borne out by the growth in private demand and for small, predominantly petrol, cars.
“New car registrations in August increased for the second successive month, providing welcome news for the UK motor industry. The scrappage incentive scheme is having a positive impact but with consumer and business confidence still fragile, there remain significant risks ahead. It is essential that these early signs of recovery are sustained into 2010,” said Paul Everitt, SMMT chief executive.
However, despite this welcome growth, the 2009 August market was still over 10,500 units below the 2007 outturn and 15.0% off the 78,800 market averaged between 1999 and 2008. Also, registrations over the first eight months of 2009 remain down 21.5% or 315,014 units, and over the past 12 months volumes have fallen by 530,125 units.
The mini and supermini segments once again showed surging growth, up 252.8% and 16.9% respectively in August. Sports and dual purpose segments also recorded strong growth, up 25.8% and 10.1% respectively, in the month.
The Ford Focus was the best selling model in August, ahead of the Fiesta and Hyundai i10. Ford’s Fiesta was the best seller over the year-to-date.
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