New car market up in January

New car market up in January

The automotive sales industry has gotten off to a good start in 2013, with new car registrations in the UK up by 11.5% in January, according to the new Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) report.

This growth, with a total of 143,643 vehicles bought in January, represents the 11th consecutive month of sales increases. And this growth was seen in most vehicle types, including private registrations, which were up by 15.9%, and vehicles utilising alternative fuel sources, which saw a promising rise of 7.9%, possibly due to the dismal situation with fossil fuel prices.

Automotive stalwarts Ford and Vauxhall dominated the month's sales, with the Fiesta and Focus taking the top spots, with 7,906 and 5,794 units shifted respectively, closely followed by the Astra and Corsa, with 5,462 and 5,178 vehicle sales.

These results have spurred the SMMT to reconsider their full year forecast for this year and next, and are now expecting the market to rise by 0.6% this year, and 2.6% the following year. You can plough through all of SMMT's data for January here: http://www.smmt.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/New-car-regs-Jan-13-FINAL.zip

---

---