Sales of new cars have fallen at their sharpest rate in almost 18 years, new figures from the SMMT (Society of Motor Manufacturers) show. Not only is this terrible news for our badly hit manufacturing industry but it’s bad for engineering and British industry as a whole. Cars are, in a way, a very good indicator of overall financial health.
Registrations in the UK were at just 128,352 in October 2008, down 23.5% on October 2007. Rather a large drop, in that we’re talking almost 25%. It goes without saying that the industry can’t really sustain this amount of loss for successive months.
This is the worst figure since June 1991 when sales slumped by more than 31%. It is the third month in a row that new car sales in the UK have nosedived. SMMT figures for September revealed a 21% dip despite the attraction of the new 58-registration number plates. Sales also fell sharply – by 18.6% – in August. Sales for 2008 now total 1.92 million – an 8.7% drop on the January-October 2007 figure.
As is always the case with these scenarios however, every cloud has a silver lining. In this case, it’s the fact that you might be one of the lucky ones with enough cash to buy new. If so, you’ll find there are wealth of car offers out there. These offers take the form of 5 years 0% APR, meaning you can have a real bargain on your hands in no time.
Perhaps more importantly, with fewer registrations, you’ll be able to get significant discounts on both pre-and not-yet-registered vehicles, so whatever you want, there’ll be a dealer out there quite happy to negotiate with you. This of course applies even if you have a vehicle to trade in – just be aware that said vehicle will also sadly be worth less!
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