Scots car sales move up through the gears despite blip

Figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) showed new car registrations north of the Border totalled 31,519 in September – a key month for sales with the new “61” plate appearing.

Although the figure was 1.3 per cent down on September 2010, Douglas Robertson, head of the Scottish Motor Trade Association, said the market was “stabilising”. It follows a modest year-on-year rise in August.

The top sellers last month were led by Vauxhall’s Corsa hatchback, with more than 2,100 examples leaving Scottish showrooms following the plate change. The British-built Mini and Nissan Qashqai models also featured in the top ten.

Across the UK as a whole, there were 332,476 cars registered during September – a fall of 0.8 per cent on the same month last year but ahead of industry expectations.

Robertson said: “Following August’s small increase, these figures show that the market is now stabilising after two years of considerable turmoil. ”

He added: “There is some disappointment that September has not shown a small increase; nevertheless, we are optimistic that the rest of 2011 will remain stable and bodes well for increases in the market in 2012.”

September is the second-largest month for new car sales after March, representing almost 17 per cent of the annual market.

UK-wide, demand was down by 5 per cent over the first nine months of the year, although it only dipped by 0.7 per cent in the third quarter.

The demand for fleet cars was strong last month, but private buyers slipped back, down 9.3 per cent. Sales to private motorists made up 46.7 per cent of the total, compared with 51 per cent in the same month in 2010. Higher diesel and alternative fuel car sales helped the average new car CO2 emissions fall by 4 per cent.

Paul Everitt, the SMMT’s chief executive, said: “The all-important September market out-performed expectations. We expected 2011 to be a challenging year and we are on track for a full-year total of around 1.9 million new car registrations, 5 per cent below 2010.”

David Raistrick, of business advisory and accountancy giant Deloitte, said: “The immaterial decrease in new car sales for September confirms our predictions over the past few months that private and corporate buyers have reached a ‘tipping point’ where they can no longer hold off buying new cars.

“There was a sizeable fall in new car sales during the last two number plate registration cycles, with a number of these buyers delaying and now making a purchase in September.

“These figures indicate an overall shift from retention to replacement.”