The SMMT has released figures showing a 9.1% decline on last year in April’s UK new car market. Sales totalled 163,216 units.

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The SMMt highlighted the fact that April followed strong sales in March.


“March was a better than expected new car market, which has not followed through into April,” said Christopher Macgowan, SMMT chief executive.


“Consumer confidence has suffered across all sectors of the economy in recent months, and new car buyers may well have been affected by increasing household costs, and the breaching of petrol’s £1/litre barrier in some areas. Perhaps it is not surprising that eight out of the top 10 best sellers fall into the supermini and lower medium segments.”


SMMT has now revised the 2006 full-year new car market forecast down by 25,000 units to 2.35 million units.

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Sue Robinson, director of the Retail Motor Industry Federation’s (RMIF) National Franchised Dealers Association said: “Speaking to a number of car dealers over the past few days, they cited increased fuel costs, rising council tax bills and hikes in utility bills as the main reasons behind the slow-down in the new car market.”


Vauxhall once again edged ahead of Ford in the month, with a 15.4% share of the April market, compared with Ford’s 13.5%. However, Ford remained the UK’s best seller over the first four months of 2006.


The Ford Focus retained the top model spot in April (9,610 sales; 50,791 units in the first four months), although the Vauxhall Astra closed the gap significantly (9,348 units in April; 39,670 sales in the first four months).