New car market continues to decline

‘The new car market continued its downward trend in November and it is now year to date -5.0% down on last year, in line with initial forecasts.

‘While alternative fuel vehicles continued to grow significantly, registrations of new diesel cars showed a consistent decline as a consequence of recent media coverage and government’s announcements’, said Sue Robinson, Director of the National Franchised Dealers Association (NFDA) which represents franchised car and commercial vehicle retailers in the UK commenting on the SMMT’s new car registration figures.

New car registrations declined by -11.2 % in November to 163,541 units. Year to date, the market is now -5.0% lower than last year with a total of 2,388,144 million cars registered. Sales of alternative fuel vehicles rose by 33.1%, petrol was up 5.0%, while diesel declined by -30.6%.

Robinson continued, ‘The recently announced increase in tax on first registration of all new diesel cars affects the cleanest Euro 6, which in many cases still represent the most efficient and affordable vehicle. By failing to increase VED on older diesel cars, government is sending a confusing message to consumers that they should not buy a new diesel, but rather stay in their old cars or buy a second hand, dirtier diesel car.

‘Positively, the resilience shown by the used car market continues to partially offset the decrease in new car registrations with many consumers considering second-hand cars as the most viable option for them.

‘We expect the new car market to continue to perform in line with these results in the last month of the year.’