Scrappage helps UK car sales in October

Scrappage Scheme sales accounted for 20% of sales in October

October has been a good month for UK car sales, rising a very impressive 31.6% year on year.

Despite our reservations about the Scrappage Scheme, it does seem that it has inspired buyers in to showrooms in the last few months. And October has recorded a year on year increase of 31.6%, although total car sales are still down over 12% on 2008 figures.

October saw a big rise in new cars sales to private buyers with sales rocketing by 86%, and there were rises in the fleet and business market. Even if you strip out car sales related to the scrappage scheme you still get some promising figures, as almost 80% of sales in October were unrelated to the scheme.

There is a chance that some of the sales are being driven by the increase in VAT in January, although if you can’t get the supplying dealer to cover that you’re doing something wrong.

Good news for the car trade, not just in the UK but throughout Europe, with Germany seeing sales rises of over 24% (and their Scrappage Scheme has ended), and French and Spanish sales up a similar amount.