New Car Sales Fall in July by 3.5%

New car registrations fell by 3.5 per cent in July, this is now a consecutive decline for thirteen months, according to figures published by the SMMT.

 The fall brings year to date sales down by 6.7 per cent with the SMMT predicting the market is on course to finish the year at 1.93 million units, down 5 per cent on 2010. Registrations for the month reached 136,446 and 1,245,108 for the year to date. Fleet purchases continue to prop up the market with sales in July up 2.1 per cent (75,505 units), accounting for 57 per cent of the total market. Year to date fleet sales are 3.3 per cent ahead of 2010.

With consumer confidence still in the doldrums retail sales fell 9.2 per cent in July accounting for just 38.4 per cent of the new market. Retail sales in the year to date are down 17.3 per cent. Significantly losers in the month included Mazda (-44 per cent), Renault (-38 per cent), Jaguar (-30 per cent), Fiat (-26 per cent) and Chrysler (-22 per cent). The figures also show that no new cars were sold by the SsangYong network and only 10 new units have been sold in the year to date.