January new car registrations in the UK fell by 13.3% on the same month last year to 157,363 units. The SMMT said that the decline was to be expected in the face of company car tax changes causing a pull-forward of sales into December 2005.
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Company car buyers were taking advantage of a 3% tax waiver before 1 January, the trade association said.
The January car market was the lowest since 1992 and over 32,000 units, or 16.9%, short of the 1999-2005 average for the month.
Fleet and business registrations fell 15.8% in January compared with year-ago levels.
“January’s registration figures show the effect on a market when tax changes are not carefully considered,” said SMMT chief executive Christopher Macgowan.
“Many company car drivers clearly rushed to take advantage of the three per cent tax benefit at the end of 2005. This led to the record diesel registrations in December, and today’s weaker January market.
“In a wider context, the UK car market remains Europe’s second largest, behind Germany. This shows that, despite tougher times for car dealers, we still have healthy demand.”
