UK 2009 car sales set to be better than expected at 2 million units

According to the SMMT UK new car sales for 2009 are expected to beat expectations when they are officially released on the 7th January and come in at about two million,.

Registrations in the last month of 2009 are expected to be above the normal December levels as private buyers continued taking advantage of the scrappage incentive and buy before the VAT reverted back to 17.5% on January 1st.

In December, the SMMT forecasted that the full year market was likely to exceed 1.975 million units whereas early forecasts for 2009 had put estimated car sales at 1.6 million to 1.7 million.

However the SMMT’s early prediction is for 2010 car sales to come in around the 1.8 million mark – which would be around 800,000 units off the all-time new car sales high.

Reports suggest that there is still about £100 million left in the scrappage scheme pot but this is expected to run dry by February and there are no further government plans to extend it despite heavy lobbying from the motor industry.