The cost of a new Ford is set to go up again this year as the manufacturer puts up prices for the fourth time in 2009.
This latest price hike will see an extra £250 to £500 added to the cost of the most popular models in the range including the Fiesta, Ka, Focus, Kuga, C-Max and Mondeo.
At the same time the bigger models in the range - the S-Max and Galaxy - will go up by an extra £600 from the end of November.
The price of a new Ford has now gone up by an average of around 14 per cent in 2009. An entry level Ford Ka will now cost new car buyers £8845, more than the price of the Fiesta when it was first launched in October 2008.
The Fiesta Studio has gone up in price by £2600 in the space of just a year and will now cost £11,295.
As with previous cost increases the manufacturer has blamed the state of the exchange rate and the weakness of the pound for the latest rises.
While Ford is the most active car maker when it comes to price hikes, they are not the only manufacturer to put up the cost of new cars.
Toyota is also set to put up prices from December 1st, while Renault, Citroen and Nissan all put up prices as recently at October 2009 with other manufacturers putting up prices up to three times this year.
These latest increases are even more significant than before as new car buyers prepare themselves for an increase in VAT with the rate going up from 15 per cent to 17.5 per cent in January, which will see an extra £500 added to the cost of a £20,000 car.
As well as the future increase from the VAT rise, the price rises have had a major impact on the cost of a new car in the scrappage scheme.
With buyers entitled to a £2000 discount on a new car when they trade in a car that is aged 10-years or older then any saving made with this discount has been effectively wiped out.
To make a saving on a new car there are still plenty of deals available on new and pre-registered cars. Parker's recently found a Ford C-Max with a saving of almost £5000 and a new Ford Focus with more £4000 off the on-the-road price.
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