Wales saw a fall in new car registrations last month, the only part of Britain suffering as the cost of living rose.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders reported 8,342 new cars were registered by Welsh dealerships last month compared with 8,637 a year ago.
That’s a decline of 3.42% on the year to date.
The top ten models sold in Wales in September were:
Nissan Qashqai, Ford Puma, and VW Polo, Ford Kuga, Ford Fiesta, Kia Sportage, MG ZS, Dacia Sandero, Toyota Aygo X and Toyota Yaris.
In the whole of the UK, car sales went up 4.59% in September, when the new plate was introduced along with strong manufacturer and dealer incentives with the most dramatic increase in North Ireland with a 12.55% growth.
Total new car registrations across the four nations were 224,867 cars and that goes some way to slowing the year to date decline to 8.2%.
It was the second successive month of growth in showroom traffic but the figures are 34.4% below pre-pandemic levels with supply restrictions hitting sales.
Private sales continue to be depressed and only incentives to businesses have kept the growth going.
Battery electric vehicle sales have slowed since earlier this year but sufficient were registered in September to push the total so far this year to over 250,000 and take the PHEV car parc to over a million in Britain.
Britain’s top ten new cars last month were Vauxhall Corsa, Nissan Qashqai, Ford Puma, Kia Sportage, MINI, Hyundai Tucson, Ford Kuga, Tesla Model Y, Kia Niro and VW Golf.
Britain’s light commercial vehicle (LCV) market grew by 10.8% to 34,950 units in September, one of the most popular months of the year for new van registrations due to the plate change.
Despite strong order books throughout 2022, September is the first month of growth in registrations this year, as supply disruptions have restricted model availability.
The performance is, however, artificially inflated in comparison with 2021, which saw the fewest registrations for the month since the 2009 recession, with this September still some -35.5% below the five-year pre-pandemic average.
