New car sales down in May as cash-for-scrap plan gets up and running

New car sales fell again for the 13th consecutive in May as the scrappage incentive finally got going.

Official figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) showed that in May just 134,585 cars were sold. This number is down by 24.8 per cent or 44,687 on May 2008.

With a reported 35,000 cars sold under the scheme so far, any rise in sales from these won't be seen until registartion figures for June are released.

The £2000 incentive - with £1000 from the Government and £1000 from the manufacturer - will be paid to any car buyer who scraps a car 10 years or older registered before 31^st 1999 to buy a new car.

However, some manufacturers - including Ford and Hyundai - are going further and offering bigger incentives in an attempt to shift stock.

But these extra incentives still struggle to come close to some of the pre-registered deals on offer.

Parker's has found a number of deals on models from the top ten manufacturers that beat their own scrappage deals. These include an 09-plate Focus with a saving of more than £5000 and a Vauxhall Astra with more than £6000 off the list price.

Despite some of these pre-reg deals, the scrappage incentive does represent the best saving on some cars where buyers would usually struggle to get any kind of discount or a decent deal.

The cash-for-scrap discount means buyers can finally get a money off cars like the Mini or Fiat 500 which are notoriously hard to get discounts on.

• The best selling cars in May

1 Ford Fiesta 7040 2 Ford Focus 6693 3 Vauxhall Corsa 5525 4 Volkswagen Golf 3961 5 Vauxhall Astra 3549

• The worst performing manufacturers in May

1 Chrysler -82.65% 2 Renault -64.09% 3 Saab -63.21% 4 Lexus -61.93% 5 Bentley -54.49%