Car sales plunge, Bank of England cuts rates

New car sales plunge in October: Renault sales were down by more than half

By Nigel Wonnacott

Motor Industry

06 November 2008 12:30

Following the sixth monthly decline in new car sales this year (down 23% this month), economists have revised market forecasts downwards, while the Bank of England has cut interest rates by 1.5%.

October’s 23% drop was the worst so far and trade body SMMT now fears sales could end the year at just 2.15 million cars. That’s 8% lower than the 2.34 million predicted to leave showrooms back in January and would be the worst market performance in more than a decade.

The pain is not expected to end in December. In 2009 new car sales could fall even further to just 1.92 million units. If true, that would signal the first sub-two million market since 1995.

Within October’s figures there was precious little good news. Jaguar and Volvo bucked the downward trend with sales rising 22.4 and 23.4% respectively, but elsewhere there was little to cheer.

Click 'Next' below to see how individual manufacturers have held up

By Nigel Wonnacott