May Car Sales down 51%
Friday, June 6th, 2008
New car sale results for May are down nearly 51% on the same month last year with 10,191 vehicles sold. Overall car sales are down 15.5 per cent on last year. The dramatic drop in sales for May is mainly down to the upcoming changes in VRT from 1st July. From the 1st July VRT will be calculated on the CO2 emissions of the vehicle rather than the cubic capacity. This will mean that some eco friendly vehicle will reduce in price where some less eco friendly vehicles will increase.
‘The overall reduction in new car sales is also likely to be impacted by a drop in consumer confidence. It would be our view that sales will pick back up from the 1st July but that this will not make up the overall difference. As some manufacturers have still not released their post July prices some people are likely to hold off till 2009. We would expect that the full year results will finish about 10% down on last year’ David Wilkinson, Sales Director Merrion Fleet
