Scots miss new car sales record 07 | 01 | 2016
SCOTTISH CAR DEALERSHIP narrowly missed out on recording a new record for new car registrations in 2015: and the disappointment has been blamed on oil and gas slowdown in the North East.
While 220,554 new cars were registered last year, the total was just 1016 units below the all-time record recorded in 2014. Significantly, Grampian dealerships saw a drop in sales of 2463 units in 2014.
The result means that while 2.63 million cars were registered in the UK last year, a rise of more than 6%, Scotland witnessed a frustratingly marginal drop of 0.46%.
Vauxhall was again the top-selling manufacturer in Scotland, with 28,822 sales, a 13.07% share of the market, but down 591 units on 2014. It did though outsell its nearest rival, Ford, which accounted for 11.53% of the market, by 3403 units.
Despite the global emissions scandal, Volkswagen was the third-largest seller in Scotland (17,876, and 8.11% market share), followed by Audi (13,175/5.97%) and Renault (11,897/5.39%).
The top 10 was rounded off by BMW (10,822/4.91%), Nissan (8652/3.92%), Peugeot (8611/3.90%), Mercedes (8555/3.88%) and Kia (7568/3.43%).
And while the Ford Fiesta was the topseller in December, overall honours went the Vauxhall Corsa.
Vauxhall's best-selling supermini saw 11,955 registrations in 2015, up 1320 units on 2014. It also finished a comfortable 1999 registrations ahead of the second-placed Fiesta, and almost 4000 ahead of the third-placed Ford Focus.
The VW Polo was fourth, with 5825 sales, followed by the Vauxhall Mokka (5193).
The top 10 was completed by the VW Golf (4766), Renault Clio (4600), Vauxhall Astra (4387), Fiat 500 (4263) and Dacia Sandero (4033).
Strathclyde once again accounted for the largest number of sales in Scotland with 113,799 registrations, up from 112,301 in 2014. Lothian, the second best region, saw the largest year-on-year growth, up 2.71% from 26,330 in 2014, to 27,044 last year.
Without question, the hardest hit region was Grampian. Clearly affected by the downturn in the oil and gas industries, sales fell from 23,816 in 2014, to 21,353 in '15.
Private registrations again led the way, accounting for 114,085 units, accounting for 51.73% of the Scottish market. And while fleet sales of 90,138 took 40.87%, the balance was made up from 16,322 of business sales, representing 7.4%.
“Whilst there is no doubt we are disappointed to note that new car registrations for 2015 narrowly missed producing another record year, a small decline on last year’s total of 0.46% should be taken in full context, as in the result for 2014 were an all-time record for Scottish registrations," Sandy Burgess, SMTA Chief Executive, said.
"The results confirm that the previous four years of consecutive growth have stalled predominately as a result of significant impact of global oil and gas industry slowdown in the North East of Scotland.
"Private share has held up at a fantastic high of 51.73%. This confirms that yet again the Scottish consumer is enjoying driving the newest, cleanest, safest and most efficient vehicles available on unbeatable deals across the country.
"With current levels of strong consumer and business confidence we are confident the outlook remains positive with every reason to expect the market to hold broadly steady in 2016.”
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Jim McGill