New Car Sales May 2013

Published Date: 6th Jun 2013

New car registrations have been very positive again in May with a total of 180,111 new vehicle registrations, an increase of 11% (17,823 vehicles) when compared to May 2012 say the SMMT (The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders). The figures are very encouraging and the highest in May for six years as we see 15 successive months of growth in new car sales in the UK.

Small cars are particularly popular and although more diesel new cars were sold in May petrol vehicles are showing significant growth presumably helped by the new generation of eco-friendlier and more fuel efficient petrol models manufacturer’s are producing.

The private sector has performed particularly well and has played a significant part in the figures, with private demand up by 20.9% in May and 16.2% for the first five months of 2013 so far. Private buyers continue to be tempted to trade in their old cars for brand new, more efficient/economic cars that can offer big savings on running costs with lower emissions (some road tax exempt), better fuel economy and low insurance bands they offer a tempting proposition. There are also cheap new car finance offers tempting buyers.

Ford continue to be the front runners proving the UK’s two favourite cars, the Fiesta and Focus with nearly 17,000 of the two models (combined) newly registered in May and over 90,000 for the first five months of 2013. The Vauxhall Corsa, VW Golf and Vauxhall Astra also continue to be amongst the most popular cars in the UK (3rd,4th and 5th best sellers), closely followed by the UK’s favourite crossover the Nissan Qashqai, the BMW leads the executive car sales with over 3,800 new registrations in May, the VW Polo, Peugeot 208 and Audi A3 making up the top ten all with all over 3,000 new registrations in May.