Scots new cars sales surge in March 07 | 04 | 2016
SCOTLAND'S NEW CAR registrations in March increased 2.73% year-on-year, with 46,050 cars leaving dealership showrooms across the country as Vauxhall continued its domination of the market. And private buyers now account for 53% of the market in Scotland, which now stands at 64,676 units in the opening three months of 2016..
The Vauxhall Corsa remains the best-selling car in Scotland, followed by the Ford Fiesta, with the Vauxhall Astra in third place.
Last month Vauxhall sold 2575 Corsas, followed by the Fiesta with 1772 units, and the Astra with 1249. Fourth-place was held by the Ford Focus (1126) followed by the VW Polo (1077).
The top 10 was completed by the Renault Clio (998), Renault Captur (996), Fiat 500 (963), VW Golf (905) and Vauxhall Viva (873).
Over the opening three months of 2016, Vauxhall has sold 3745 Corsas, followed by the Fiesta (2427), Astra (1913), Polo (1549) and Focus (1464).
The top 10 best-sellers are completed by the Vauxhall Mokka (1440), Fiat 500 (1384), VW Golf (1240), Viva (1191) and Captur (1141).
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In the opening three months of this year, Vauxhall sold 10,072, compared to 8583 in the corresponding period last year. Ford was the second-highest seller, with 6934 units, down from 7662 of last year.
And while Volkswagen held on to third place, with 4611 sales, again down from last year's 5003, Renault eased itself above Audi into fourth.
Fifth-placed Audi slipped from 3672 sales in March 2015 to 3504 this year, while the French manufacturer saw sales increase from 3093 last year to 3519 in March 2016.
The top 10 was completed by BMW (2772 / 2944 in 2015), Mercedes (2590 / 2263), Toyota (2478 / n/a), Kia (2323 / n/a), and Fiat (2270 / 2495).
As was the case in February, Scotland's largest region, Strathclyde, witnessed a drop year-on-year, done 0.8% from 23,664 units in March 2015, to 23,475 last month. The only other region to see a fall was Dumfries & Galloway, down 3.5% from 972 to 938.
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The largest year-on-year increase was experienced in the Central region, which saw March sales increase by 21.65% from 2637 in March 2015, to 3208 last month.
The March figures were welcomed by Sandy Burgess, chief executive of the Scottish Motor Trade Association.
"March results have come in at a stunning 46,050 units across the country," Burgess said. ".All areas have experienced growth with the exception of Dumfries & Galloway, and Strathclyde.
"The reductions, however, are minimal and with the fantastic growth on 2015 numbers elsewhere we have come out of this critical sales period well ahead for the year-to-date situation.
"We have been aware of some dealers who were experiencing new vehicle delivery issues towards the end of the month, and this may well have had a small but noticeable negative effect.
"The rest of the UK continues to show stronger growth — the market was up 5.52% — but as we have mentioned previously, this may not all be down to sales with specific manufacturers and dealers taking tactical decisions on registrations.”
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Jim McGill