New car registrations in the UK fell 21.2% year on year to 330,295 units in what trade group the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) called “stormy September” (also an apt description of the month’s weather).
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Year-to-date volume was down 7.5% to 1,794,419 units. Diesel-fuelled vehicles’ market share rose to 42.8% in September, but volume fell to 141,306.
Reflecting comments made by key auto industry executives at the Paris show last week, the SMMT has urged the UK government “to take immediate action to restore consumer confidence”.
“New car registrations have fallen for the fifth consecutive month and represent the most difficult economic conditions the industry has faced in 17 years,” said SMMT chief executive Paul Everitt.
“Government action is now needed to restore consumer confidence and boost demand in the real economy. The chancellor’s pre-budget report should set out a package of measures to boost demand for new fuel-efficient cars and scrap plans for unfair increases in car tax.”
With 15,647 sales, GM Europe’s Vauxhall Corsa was the top-selling model here in the UK last month though Ford’s Focus held the YTD crown with 86,112 sales for the nine months to the end of September.
Only the mini segment posted growth last month, thanks to Smart, Hyundai’s i10 and Vauxhall’s Agila. Large cars, in general, saw sharper sales falls then small cars – although both Audi and Jaguar bucked the trend and saw volume rises in September.
Alternative fuel vehicles’ market share rose from 0.7% to 0.8% although volume also fell last month to 2,738 units, but was still up 1.5% YTD to 13,586 units.
“The rise in oil prices impacted on global economies and helped drive inflation up. More recently oil prices have fallen. As lower prices filter through it is hoped inflation will ease and base rates can be more credibly lowered. This in turn should make borrowing cheaper and lift confidence and spending,” the SMMT said in its results statement.
“Increased confidence is clearly needed in the new car market. A further drop of 20% in the final quarter this year would leave full year volumes at 2.165mn units, the lowest since 1996.”
Other brands posting rises in September were Hummer (supplies of South African-assembled right hand drive H3s have boosted it this year to 159 sales YTD versus 13 to the end of September ’07), MG (nine cars from the re-start of Longbridge assembly were registered last month) and Smart.
Brands posting a nine-month YTD uptick include Audi (2.49%), Chevrolet (6.56%), Daihatsu (4.41%), Daimler (7.41%), Jaguar (10.34% thanks to the XF), Kia (18.1%), Lotus (4.61%), Mazda (0.55%), Nissan (7.3%) and Volvo (13.45%).
Falls included Aston Martin down 24.53%, Bentley 22.83%, Cadillac 30.53%, Corvette 72.09%, Honda 17.25%, Land Rover 24.31%, Lexus 29.16%, Renault 23.42%, Saab 29.85%, Ssangyong 53.5% and Tata 50%.
Key players Ford and GM’s Vauxhall were off 6.72% and 6.76% respectively, YTD.
