Consumer car buying patterns affected by economy

‘Consumer car buying patterns continue to be affected by the current economic situation,’ according to Sue Robinson, Director of the RMI National Franchised Dealers Association (NFDA), representing the UK’s car dealers, commenting on new car sales for February 2009.

54,359 new cars were sold in February, 21.9 per cent down on February 2008.

Robinson continues: ‘While new car sales in February were still well below the numbers seen in 2008, according to our car dealer members, used car sales in February 2009 were still extremely robust.’

According to Robinson, the adoption of a car scrappage scheme would give a boost to the new car market, and enable consumers to trade in their old cars for new, less polluting vehicles: ‘Consumers will look to new cars again, given the right impetus, and the RMIF is continuing to lobby for the introduction of a scrappage scheme could help revive car sales, and remove high-polluting cars from the road at the same time. This scheme is widely supported by car retailers.

‘The RMIF has presented a paper to Government putting the case for a scrappage Scheme in the UK that mirrors those successfully adopted in other EU states, and last week the RMIF met Exchequer Secretary Angela Eagle MP to further outline its views on the scheme.

‘This RMIF-led initiative is clearly gathering momentum,’ said Robinson.