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Confirmation that consumer confidence and spending on "big-ticket" items is testing new lows came yesterday with the release of the latest figures on new cars sales. The Society of Motor Manufacturers (SMMT) reported an 18.6 per cent annual decline in sales in August, with sales to private buyers rather than the fleets down by a massive 23.6 per cent.
Quote:
By contrast, the tiny Smart car has seen its popularity more than double, up 104.6 per cent, with almost 5,000 new examples on the road so far in 2008.
Stateside, the questions most often asked have changed in recent months.
It used to be related to the smart's size: "how safe", "aren't you scared"...
Nowadays, it's the wallet's size: "how much", "mpg", "how much to fill it up"...
Dodge are doing OK, but are still a small player in the UK market. American cars dont go down too well due to the interiors being way below standards that we are used to. The diesel engine they use is an old VW one. While its powerful enough it is a noisy beast.
As for smart doing well, one of the reasons for this is the finance offer they are doing. Pay 1350 deposit and its 99 a month for a 71bhp Passion. Which is fantastic and why we have one! The diesel is coming out in Feb next year and I expect it to sell really well
its also the price of gas in the uk which is making people now buy smaller cars and do less miles and the proposed new road taxing scheme prices which i think is making people wait to see how much a dent its gonna leave in their wallet ???
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