New car registrations fall - Autos - Cars

<p>Experts and analysts of the car industry had predicted a decline in new car registrations for January 2011; they stated the lack of scrappage scheme as the cause. New car registrations in January 2011 fell by 11.5% to 128,811 units compared to January 2010, but last Januarys new car registrations were fuelled by the scrappage scheme.</p>

<p>Figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers clearly show that January 2010s new car registrations were helped by an 18% contribution from scrappage scheme sales. When comparing 2011 figures to the January 2010s if you remove the scrappage influenced sales of 2010 then the sales figures are actually up by 8%.</p>

<p>The first half of 2011 will look worse than 2010, the scrappage scheme ran out in the second quarter of 2010 which means the first half results for this year will be 5% down. The lower number of new car sales in January of this year can also be contributed to the rise in VAT to 20%, uncertainty over the economic setting and potentially a consequence of the bad weather in December.</p>

<p>SMMT chief executive, Paul Everitt said, This is in line with SMMT forecasts and marks the beginning of a challenging year for the UK motor industry. Consumer confidence is low and it is important that the Government uses the March Budget to help relieve some of the financial pressure on motorists by freezing fuel duty, while providing stability and certainty on motoring taxes. Despite the challenging conditions, the demand for low CO2 emitting and highly fuel efficient cars continues to grow.</p>

<p>January saw a sharp decrease of registrations for new cars in the mini and supermini segment, registrations of executive and luxury cars improved. Fuel price increases has led to more demand for diesel models, hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles matched their record share of 1.4% of the market as a whole. The Ford Focus was the best selling new car in January and also the top selling diesel model in the month. In the used car segment the used Audi in Cumbria did really well.
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