NEW car sales are falling at a faster rate in Scotland than the UK as a whole, with the latest figures for June showing a "significant drop off" in demand.
Registrations north of the Border were down by almost eight per cent year-on-year compared to a decline of just 0.22 per cent in the Uk overall.
Sandy Burgess, chief executive of the Scottish Motor Trade Association, said it had been a "very difficult month" for the industry in Scotland.
He added: "There is no doubt that the pre-referendum uncertainty has caused unease within the market place for new vehicles, I would urge the UK and Scottish Governments to work with all pace to mitigate the effects of any “post Brexit” hangovers as quickly as possible to ensure that we are able to return to a stable market which can only be good news for everyone, manufacturers,
dealers and consumers.”
Sales of new cars to date in 2016 are holding up better, however, with a total of 116,085 registrations during the first six months of the year, down only marginally - 0.32 per cent - compared to the first six months of 2015.
The Ford Fiesta Scotland’s remains the bestselling new car model in Scotland, while VW and Audi are the third and fourth most popular brands - both makes showing continued recovery following a dip in sales triggered by last years emissions scandal.
The overall UK results also show continued growth in demand for alternatively fuelled vehicles (AFVs), such as electric cars, with sales during the first six months of 2016 up 21.3 per cent compared with the same period in 2015.
AFVs now account for 3.2 per cent of the UK's total new car market.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here