Land Rover leads lift in sales in key month

Oct 7 2009 by John Cranage, Birmingham Post

Land Rover helped spearhead a strong recovery in car sales in the key month of September, industry figures showed yesterday.

The Solihull off-road specialist, which had been hit hard by the credit squeeze and recession, saw sales of cars with the new 56 registration plate surge by 34 per cent to 3,360 in September as upgraded versions of several of its models found buyers.

Despite last month’s surge, however, Land Rover sales were still 24 per cent down on the year to date at 22,074.

Jaguar, which has yet to benefit from the arrival in the showrooms of the new XJ flagship saloon car, was down seven per cent with UK sales of 3,306 last month and 19 per cent down over the first nine months of the year at 13,948.

Total sales of new cars rose in the UK by more than 11 per cent to 367,929 units as consumers continued to cash in on the scrappage scheme, funded jointly by the Government and manufacturers, which gives carbuyers a £2,000 discount when they trade in a car or light van more than ten years old.

The rise outstripped industry expectations of an increase in the order of 2.5 per cent.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said sales rose in September for the third month in a row following rises of six per cent in August and 2.4 per cent in July.

SMMT chief executive Paul Everitt said: “Market conditions remain challenging with demand being underpinned by the extremely successful scrappage incentive scheme.

“The extension of the scheme will help to sustain demand through the latter part of this year and into 2010. This will allow economic recovery to strengthen and safeguard valuable industrial capability.”

Because of the registration plate change, September is an important month for the car industry with sales of about one fifth of the annual total.

About 1.5 million new cars have been sold in the year to date, down by 15.5 per cent compared with the same period last year.

Sales of private cars drove last month’s increase while both fleet and business sales were down. Fleet sales were 13 per cent lower than a year ago and by 25 per cent in the year to date while business sales were 11 per cent down on the month and 29 per cent on the year to date.

The SMMT said last week’s announcement of an extension to the scrappage scheme from £300 million to £400 million was an “extremely important decision” that would give more consumers the chance to buy a new car.