The UK’s year-on-year new car sales were up 31.6 per cent in October, a rise contributed to the continued success of the country’s scrappage incentive scheme.
Official SMMT figures released today reveal that sales were up for the fourth consecutive month, with around one in five new cars being sold under scrappage.
See hi-res pics of what's being scrapped in the UK
Paul Everitt, SMMT chief executive, said scrappage had helped stabilise the UK car industry and customers were taking advantage of the scheme while they can.
“We have seen additional demand created by the extension of the scheme and customers wanting to avoid the VAT increase planned for January,” he said.
Private demand for new cars saw a sharp rise last month of 86 per cent, while Everitt said there had also been significant growth in the business and fleet sales sectors.
Year-to-date new car registrations are still down 12.3 per cent on last years levels, however, to 1,685,981 units.
Elsewhere in Europe, German registrations were up 24 per cent in October despite the country having no scrappage scheme. Spanish sales were up 26.4 per cent, French sales were up 20.1 per cent and Italian sales saw a 15.69 per cent increase.
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Re: UK car sales up 31.6%
In Ireland Vauxhalls are badged as Opels so I suspect these will be a small number of "persoanl imports" from the RoI into (mainly) Northern Ireland. A few years ago when it was worth doing personal imports it was not uncommon to see Opel Astras, Zafiras etc with UK plates. Indeed some of the car supermarkets - Trade Sales in Slough in particular - imported Opels not only from Ireland but also Cyprus and Malta (both RHD markets) and sold them as new in the UK, albeit that the spec was often different and they had less warranty than a UK sourced car
Re: UK car sales up 31.6%
I'm probably being thick here, but - looking at the figures in detail - I'm confused as to why the SMMT is reporting 186 Opel sales/registrations for October 2009. Opel?? Since when has GM been selling Opels in the UK? No other Opels were registered prior to October - so have I missed some big announcement and we're actually now seeing Opels on sale here in one form or another? Can anyone explain? Apologies if I'm missing something obvious...