Record jump in new car sales

New car sales continue to improve with October showing the biggest monthly increase this year.

Latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show that overall sales were up by 31.6 per cent on October 2008 with 168,000 cars sold. Cars brought under the scrappage scheme made up around 20 per cent of sales in October.

Small cars have again dominated the top 10 best sellers for the month with the Ford Fiesta continuing to outsell its competitors. October also saw the Hyundai i10 break back in to the top 10 best sellers while the Fiat 500 also showed strong sales coming in as the tenth best seller for the month.

However, while it looks as if the car industry is recovering with the SMMT and Government praising the scrappage scheme, high levels of registrations towards the end of the month suggest that not all of these sales were to genuine car buyers and may include an element of self-registration.

The rate of orders under the scrappage scheme also appears to have slowed. While many were predicting that the original £300m would be used up by October, the most recent orders under scrappage up to October 25 - is 268,000. At this current rate the February cut-off date could come before the now increased funding of £400m cash-for-scrap budget is used up.

At the same time more manufacturers have put up the prices of new cars again with Renault, Skoda and Nissan all increasing the costs with Toyota set to do the same in December and Ford warning they may have to put up prices for the fourth time this year.

Despite new car sales continuing to improve there are still plenty of deals available on pre-registered models from car supermarkets and online brokers. Parker's mystery shoppers recently found a BMW X3 with more than £5000 off and a Volvo V50 with a saving of £3000.

• The best selling cars in October (private and fleet registrations combined)

1 Ford Fiesta 8812 2 Vauxhall Astra 7415 3 Ford Focus 6668 4 Vauxhall Corsa 6332 5 Volkswagen Golf 4630

• The worst performing manufacturers in October (private and fleet registrations combined)