Currently reading: UK's new car sales rise again
Sales up again in May - but the industry is now expected to head into decline

The UK’s new car registrations rose for the 11th consecutive month in May- but industry body the SMMT believes the market will now head into decline.

Scrappage ended earlier this year and the final few cars purchased under the scheme were registered in May. The ending of this scheme, coupled with continued economic uncertainty, is expected to see car sales in 2010 end up lower than in 2009.

May’s registrations were up 13.5 per cent on the same month last year; 153,095 units in total were registered in the month.

SMMT chief executive Paul Everitt is now calling on the new coalition government to deliver a strong emergency budget to help fend off the expected decline in the new car industry.

“May was another good month for the UK new car market, although we expect the coming months to be extremely challenging,” he said. “It is essential that the upcoming emergency budget promotes consumer and business confidence to maintain economic recovery.”

The Ford Focus was the UK’s best-selling car in May ahead of the Vauxhall Astra and Ford Fiesta.

Top 10 cars sold in May

1. Ford Focus - 7163 units registered2. Vauxhall Astra – 67343. Ford Fiesta – 66194. Vauxhall Corsa -59505. VW Golf – 43146. BMW 3-series – 37327. VW Polo – 37218. Mini - 34459. Nissan Qashqai – 335910. Audi A3- 3093

Join the debate

Comments
8
Add a comment…
andrepaul999 9 June 2010

Re: UK's new car sales rise again

Problem is the figures are compared to 2009 which was one of the worst on record.

It will be interesting to see what happens for the rest of this year, especially if we are heading for the dreaded double dip

Lee23404 7 June 2010

Re: UK's new car sales rise again

CambsBill wrote:
it's great to see the British-built Astra doing so well in May -

It is good to see the Astra doing quite well but shouldn't it be doing better against the now very old Focus. Both are fleet/company car specials and there are some real give away deals on the Astra at the moment.

Just an observation but 5 of the top 10 (including the BMW Mini) are German. In fact, aren't most Focuses made there too? Not good for the balance of trade deficit is it.

CambsBill 7 June 2010

Re: UK's new car sales rise again

nicksheele wrote:

UK: http://www.smmt.co.uk/articles/article.cfm?articleid=21545

Now I know you're Horse'n'cart - that good old habit of supplying links to stories that go against your own point (YoY sales up 26%, UK built sales up 52.1% so, errr, imports presumably didn't do so well).

Looking at the silver lining rather than always focussing on the cloud, it's great to see the British-built Astra doing so well in May - it's a very good car and long may it continue!