New car registrations in the UK rose 11.5 per cent year-on-year in April, the 10th consecutive monthly rise.
Although the UK's scrappage incentive scheme ran officially ended in March, cars bought under the scheme were still being registered into April and accounted for eight per cent of the 148,793 units registered in the UK last month.
Paul Everitt, the SMMT's chief executive, said: "As our new government establishes itself, the priority must be sustaining and strengthening the economic recovery with particular focus on encouraging the availability of more and better priced finance for businesses and consumers."
The successful start to 2010 for new car registrations has led the SMMT to increase its annual forecast for 2010 to 1.924 million units, some 107,000 more than it had predicted would be registered in the UK this year in January.
"April was another good month for the UK motor industry with private buyers responding positively, despite the end of the scrappage scheme," said Everitt. "There are still difficult months ahead, but the strong start to 2010 has led SMMT to increase its annual forecast to 1.924 million units.”
The UK's top selling car in April was the Ford Fiesta, ahead of the Vauxhall Astra and Ford Focus.
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Re: UK's new car sales rise again
Me too, and surprisingly good looking. I saw one today and I had to look at the badge so many times that I thought my eyesight was failing when all I could see was a Griffin.
Re: UK's new car sales rise again
There must have only been so many people that wanted to trade in a perfectly usable car in order to enjoy the delights of Hyundai's tiddler i spose.
I'm delighted to see the new, British built, Astra doing so well. i think its a rather nice motor, and in the real world- away from the pages of the car mags- a worthy competitor for the Golf and Focus.
Re: UK's new car sales rise again
It would appear to have become less popular, so fell out of the Top 10.