SMMT new car registrations - comment from Simon Benson, AA Cars

Simon Benson, director of motoring services at AA Cars, comments: “As Mike Hawes pointed out, the number of new car registrations in September tends to be a good measure of the overall health of the market.

“However, we’re not entirely surprised to see sales drop off in September as new car registrations have declined each month without fail since April when the vehicle excise duty tax changes came into place.

“Sales of both diesel and petrol vehicles took somewhat of a beating last month, but this presented a strong opportunity for alternatively-fuelled vehicles, with registrations in this section of the market up by more than 40% in September.

“The government’s plans to ban the sale of new diesel and petrol cars by 2040 will likely have impacted new registrations, while wider economic uncertainty will have also affected consumer confidence.

“September now marks the sixth consecutive month of declining sales, and we’d expect to see a similar trend continue until the end of the year.”