NEW car sales in Scotland have reached their highest level for more than a decade, figures have revealed.
Car registrations north of the border reached 43,724 units last month, an increase of 14.79% compared to March 2013, when a total of 38,089 new cars were registered.
The figures have also set a new record for Scottish car sales in the month of March, surpassing the previous record in 2004 of 40,954 units sold.
Members of trade associations welcomed the figures, after February this year saw a decrease of 1.09% in sales compared to the same month in 2013.
Douglas Robertson, chief executive of the Scottish Motor Trade Association (SMTA), said: "We are very pleased with these March figures following the small dip in February.
"We believe these figures confirm consumers' awareness of the extremely attractive finance deals now available and the immensely attractive range of new cars now on the market.
"As we have said before, the cost of running a new car is often less than that of running an older car and, as confidence returns, consumers are becoming more aware of this.
"Whilst we do expect a positive market for the remainder of the year, we would hesitate to project a continuation of the 12.09% increase we have seen in the first quarter."
The top selling make and model in Scotland was still the Vauxhall Corsa, closely followed by the Ford Fiesta and Ford Focus in the top three.
Also included in the top ten bestsellers was the Renault Clio, Volkswagen Golf and Fiat 500, which doubled its sales figures last month compared to the same time last year.
The highest increase in sales was in Fife, which rose by 25% compared to last year, closely followed by the Borders and Grampian regions which came in at around 24% each.
The Scottish figures also echo the UK-wide figures, which were both compiled by the Society Of Motor Manufacturers And Traders (SMMT).
A total of 464,824 new cars were registered last month across the UK, which is a rise of 17.7% compared to the March 2013 figure, the best since 466,954 were registered in March 2004.
These figures represent the best two months for new sales in the UK since 1999 when the motor industry abandoned the August once-a-year number plate change in favour of twice-a-year changes in March and September.
Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said: "New car registrations surged 17.7% in March to 464,824 units, a surprisingly strong level of growth and a reflection of intensifying consumer confidence and the availability of great new products.
"Given the past six years of subdued economic performance across the UK, there is still a substantial margin of pent-up demand that is contributing to a strong new and used car market.
"There has never been a better time to buy a new car thanks to attractive finance deals and advanced technologies that often make new cars cheaper to run."
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 hereComments are closed on this article