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New car sales in UK still growing – up 14.8% April 2013. Driven by PPI Claims?

It is quite hard to fathom just how UK new car sales (well, registrations) continue to rise inexorably against a backdrop of otherwise stagnant economic activity, but they do. April 2013 has seen a total of 163,357 new car registrations, up a huge 14.8 per cent on April 2012 and the best figure since 2008, and these sales figures are not being driven by fleet buyers but by private motorists – private sector registrations grew by 32.3 per cent in April and are up by 15.2 per cent year to date. Not surprisingly, it’s the Superminis that are performing strongly – although all sectors are showing a rise – and it’s the Ford Fiesta that continues to be the best seller in the UK with sales of over 8,000 in April and over 42,000 so far in 2013, and the rise of superminis has also seen an increase in sales of petrol-engined cars thanks to the wave of small capacity, frugal petrol options.

Which car has the best residual value? A MINI

The MINI has the lowest depreciation of any car in the UK When it comes to buying a car, many of us decide how much we can afford to spend and then go and look for a car that fits our budget. But what we should really be looking at is how the car we want will be worth in the future – its residual value. Because the residual value of your car is often where the biggest costs lies, and it has a major impact on monthly payments if you decide to acquire your nice new car on a contract hire or leasing deal.

SEAT SUV confirmed for 2016

SEAT Compact SUV gets a green light for 2016 (SEAT IBX Concept pictured) SEAT has been threatening to build a compact SUV for years, and back in 2011 it revealed the IBX Concept (pictured above) which was the SEAT take on the Audi Q3. Now, finally, it seems VW has signed-off on SEAT’s compact SUV and the new compact SUV will hit the market in 2016, hopefully giving SEAT’s poor sales a real boost. Expected to be based on the VW MQB platform, the SEAT SUV should enable SEAT to properly compete in Europe and tap in to a market that has grown by 40 per cent in the last few years whilst SEAT’s existing market for its cars has shrunk and been compromised by a weak economy in Europe where the vast majority of SEAT’s sales are made.