New car sales still rising - April 2014 is 26th monthly improvement

New car sales in the UK are still rising, with the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) reporting April 2014 sales up 8.2% on 2013.

The Ford Fiesta (pictured) is still the best-selling UK car in April 2014

It’s almost become a monthly ritual to roll out yet another rise in new car sales in the UK as the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) reveals the latest figures. And April 2014 is no different.

In fact, it’s no different to the last 26 months, as that’s how long monthly figures for year on year sales have continued to rise.

It’s true to say there are big anomalies in the number of cars reported as sales that are actually not that, but assuming the reporting methods are consistent it seems reasonably safe to assume that at least 70 per cent of the figures quoted are reaching end users.

March 2014 was a bumper month with sales (registrations) of 465k, but that was down to the plate change. So the figures for April 2014 – 176,820 may seem small, but they represent and increase over April 2013 of 8.2 per cent, and sales so far in 2014 are up 12.5 per cent on 2013.

Mike Hawes, SMMT Chief Executive, said:

After the bumper plate-change month of March, the UK car market returned to more modest but still positive growth in April, with new car registrations up 8.2% to 176,820 units. This marks 26 consecutive months of growth as GDP continues to pick up, inflation falls and wage levels improve.
As UK economic confidence improves still further and the market continues its upward trend, we have revised our 2014 forecast up from 2.3 million to over 2.4 million registrations. This represents an increase of more than 6% versus last year.

All this makes the UK the second biggest car market in the EU even after seven months of growth in car sales in Europe, and there seems no sign the continued growth is going to end any time soon.