Scottish new car sales market cools in May

Scottish new car registrations fell just under 17 per cent in May in what the Scottish Motor Trade Association (SMTA) yesterday called a “disappointing” but expected outturn.

There were a total of 13,925 new car registrations last month, down from 16,748 in May last year.

In the calendar year to date there were 94,046 Scottish car registrations, compared with 96,043 in the same peri- od of 2016. Sandy Burgess, chief executive of the SMTA, said: “There is no doubt that the triple whammy of the pull forward of registrations in March, the cooling of the market and the uncertainty brought about by the general election has created this scenario.

“We expect this trend to continue over the summer months possibly until we reach the September plate change”.

Vauxhall retained the market leadership with 12.6 per cent of Scottish registrations.