The new car market leapt by 57.6 per cent in November, this year’s fifth successive month of growth, according to registration data published by the SMMT.

The figures show 158,082 cars were sold over the course of the month, but the year-on-year increase is against a market that slumped -37 per cent, the biggest fall to date, to just 100,333 registrations in November 2008. The SMMT pointed out that November 2009 sales were on a par with November 2007 before the credit crunch and subsequent recession.

Scrappage contribution
Although the scrappage scheme contributed to the growth over the course of the month, the SMMT said that without scrappage orders the market would still have risen just over 20 per cent.

Total year-to-date sales are 1,844,063, down 8.8 per cent year-on-year.

Retail demand
Once again sales in the month were powered by the retail sector which grew by 141 per cent. But the fleet and small business sectors also rallied with increases of 9.6 per cent and 21.5 per cent respectively.

In the year to date fleet is down 21.5 per cent and business is down 25.6 per cent. Retail is up 9.1 per cent.

Hyundai doubles
Ford’s Fiesta retained its best selling car status with 8,028 sales but the month’s real champion proved to be Hyundai which saw its year to date sales double to 53,391 units.

Outlook
With scrappage running its course at the end of February, VAT returning to 17.5 per cent and the introduction of the new car tax in April, the SMMT said the outlook for 2010 is “uncertain”. It is currently predicting sales of 1.8 million, their lowest level in over a decade.