New car registrations were up again in November, but only compared to poor sales of last year and continue to be below the number of cars sold in 2007.
Latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show that sales were up by 57 per cent on November 2008 with 158,082 cars sold. However, this may be a big improvement on last year but is still slightly less than the 158,735 sold in November 2007.
The number of sales under scrappage have started to slow month on month with 34,000 cars sold with the discount in November. This is not the only problem with the £2000 discount. The Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) recently admitted to there being errors in the number of cars that have been brought under the incentive.
With cars sold with the incentive on 274,000 up to November 22, it is likely that the February cut-off date for the scheme will come before the extended budget of £400m is used up and could even come before the original budget of £300m is spent.
Nearly all car manufacturers sales improved in November 2009 compared to the same month last year and Volvo expects to be the first premium car maker to sell more cars overall in 2009 than they did in 2008.
The total figure for the whole of 2009 is expected to be lower than recorded for 2008, with registrations from January to November at 1.8 million 8.8 per cent lower than the two million recoded over the same period last year.
While the top ten best selling cars may look familiar with the Ford Fiesta leading the way there are a few surprises. The BMW 3-Series was the fifth best selling car in November with the Nissan Qashqai coming in at number nine for the month.
Despite the gradual improvement in sales in 2009, manufacturers have continued to increase prices of new cars throughout the year. The latest manufacturer to put up costs is Ford, making the December rise the manufacturers fourth increase in 2009.
Are you thinking of buying a new car? We want to know what you think to VAT rising, scrappage ending and the continued price rises by manufacturers.
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The best selling cars in November (private and fleet registrations combined)
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1
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Ford Fiesta
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8028
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2
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Ford Focus
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5646
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3
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Vauxhall Corsa
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5433
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4
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Vauxhall Astra
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4803
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5
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BMW 3-Series
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3718
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The worst performing manufacturers in November (private and fleet registrations combined)
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1
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Hummer
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-100.00%
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2
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Saab
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-70.98%
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3
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Daihatsu
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-58.90%
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4
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Proton
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-55.75%
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5
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Bentley
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-35.29%
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