New car registrations in Britain last month were 7.1% down from a year earlier at 144,353 units, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said on Friday, suggesting higher interest rates may be cooling demand.
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For the whole year 2004, the number of new car registrations fell 0.5% to 2.57 million units, a whisker below the record 2.58 million new cars sold in 2003, according to a Reuters report.
The SMMT reportedly expected the car market to slow further this year, forecasting new car registrations would fall 4% in 2005 to 2.465 million.
“Our expectations point to a slightly weaker market than in recent years, a reflection that the automotive industry is not immune to the competitive pressures affecting other sectors,” SMMT chief executive Christopher Macgowan told Reuters. “The market for 2005 is expected to reach around 2.465 million units which, in the context of the last 10 years, remains a robust forecast.”
The British car market started the first quarter of 2004 with a bang before slowing down later in the year, with the Ford Focus the best selling car, the SMMT told the news agency.
Separately, Ford of Britain’s chairman, Roger Putnam, told the Daily Telegraph sales had come off record levels because businesses were now taking longer to change their company cars as the quality of vehicles improved.
