UK New car sales hit 394,806 in March 2013

The latest figures from the SMMT show that new car registrations in the UK in March 2013 hit 394,806, up 5.9 per cent over March 2012.

The seemingly inexorable rise in new car registrations in the UK is continuing, with the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) reporting sales in March 2013 up 5.9 per cent on March 2012, with a total of 394,086 cars registered.

These figures mean that new car registrations have grown for thirteen consecutive month and are now at their highest level since the Government introduced the Scrappage scheme in 2010 to try and breathe new life in to the market and encourage buyers to opt for low emission cars.

Sales for the first quarter of 2013 are also up – by 7.4 per cent – and petrol-powered cars are also making a comeback (up by 12.1 per cent in 2013 and outselling diesel cars) thanks to the recent introduction of small capacity turbos in cars like the Ford Fiesta with its 1.0 litre 3-cylinder engine.

And it’s the Ford Fiesta that tops the registrations list for March with 22,748 registered, followed by the Vauxhall Corsa (16,169( and the Ford Focus (15,434).

Of course, we have to ask how skewed these figures are by the increasingly common practice of dealers pre-registering cars to hit sales targets, which is thought to account for anything up to a third of all new registrations.

Still, strong figures and a nice beacon of prosperity in difficult economic times.