Real UK car sales ‘have halved’ in November 2008

By Tim Pollard

Motor Industry

02 December 2008 09:58

The United Kingdom’s car market is in freefall, CAR has learned. Although official registration figures won’t be released until later this week, we can reveal that retail sales slumped by 45% in November 2008.

It’s a crucial metric, retail registrations being actual sales to real people – as opposed to bulk-buy fleet deals to businesses (which are also down). The total UK car market is set to shrink by 37%, the figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders are likely to show.

We’ve corroborated the figures from two separate sources. They confirm the crisis gripping the UK’s, and the world’s, industry.

Why are sales drying up faster than a glass of water in a desert? The looming global recession is hitting people’s pockets, redundancies are in the news every day, confidence is low and credit hard to come by. It’s no wonder people are delaying new-car purchases in the current climate…

By Tim Pollard