New car sales registration figures statistics UK April 2009 SMMT vehicle motor industry drop by make manufacturer dealer stats
Posted on | May 7, 2009 | Comments Off
April’s registered new car sales figures for this month are abysmal. It is like watching the industry slowly die.
Registrations in April were down 24.0% or 42,193 units on the April 2008 market. It was the lowest April new UK car sales market since 1991. Registrations over the first four months of 2009 declined by 28.5% or 245,184 units.
There are many horror stories from car dealers and manufacturers. Pendragon, the largest dealer group in the UK has revealed that it lost £200 million before tax in the year up to December 31, 2008 in comparison to a £46.5 million profit in 2007. Several manufacturers are in dire straights with Jaguar (as this is written) at the death over loan guarantees with the Government BERR, LDV the UK van maker on the brink and many manufacturers/importers looking very shaky.
Renault are collapsing with 6,000 sales lost in April 2009. Fiat are dropping like a stone. In particular groups like IM who own Subaru and Daihatsu are looking at a massive haemorrhaging of sales, Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge look very shaky and makers like Proton are virtually dead. Land Rover is doing terribly. Mini and SAAB have dropped by half. The number of makers showing a reduction greater than 30% (IN YELLOW) is large.
The much-touted scrappage scheme, offering “£2000″ to buyers with an over-10-year old car to scrap is simply a joke. There is absolutely no new money from manufacturers, many are simply substituting discounts that already exist. Therefore it is a £1000 scheme, (less the value of the MOT passing “scrap” part exchange). And who, owning a current 10-year old car will want to buy a brand new car? These typical customers will hardly pass finance underwriting.
Yet, the SMMT is offering wishy-washy statements pinning “hopes” on this scrapping scheme. Their hopeless chief exectutive, Paul Everitt says “(the) Scrappage incentive scheme that starts on 18 May will hopefully restore volumes”. …hopefully… this is a complete joke! As I type, not every manufacturer has signed up to this daft scheme, it’s completely unclear how it works, and many independent cut-price retailers like Motorpoint have been excluded. This industry body the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders has been weak, ineffective and useless in doing anything that will restore customer confidence. This is not rocket science. Confusing people with silly worthless schemes is crazy.
Remarkably, my own sales figures were up again on April 2009. More people are preferring fixed car contracts, with the yo-yo of residual values, this gives afixed outlay over 2 or 3 years, compared to a riskier gamble with an “owned” new car.




















