September car sales beat expectations – good news for dealers

‘The September number plate change is one of the main annual sales drivers, so the better-than-expected sales rise will be good news for car dealers,’ said Sue Robinson, Director of the RMI National Franchised Dealers Association (NFDA), part of the Retail Motor Industry Federation (RMIF), commenting on car sales figures for September 2007 announced today (4 October 2007).

419,290 new cars were sold during September, 1.3 per cent up on 2006.

This pushed year-to-date registrations up 2 per cent to 1,940,515.

Robinson continues: ‘Increasing sales of low carbon vehicles shows that consumers are doing their part, and voting with their wallets.’

Also today, the Bank of England announced that interest rates will stay at 5.75 per cent.

Robinson believes that consumer confidence will continue to benefit from this: ‘Holding the interest rate at its current level may help car sales to continue at this level for the rest of the year.’

Robinson adds: ‘Interest rates stability is good for consumers, and good for businesses. In the long run it is good for the economy too.’