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Olympics end and race is on to win orders for 62-plates

Citroen 62 plate
Ready: The industry is hoping the feel good factor from London 2012 will continue into showrooms for the 62-plate models

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13 August 2012

 

Ready: The industry is hoping the feel good factor from London 2012 will continue into showrooms for the 62-plate models

Author:

ROBIN ROBERTS 

The motor industry is hoping the Olympic feel-good factor will continue as order books open for the ‘62-plate’ change from 1 September.

Despite the continuing recession, the SMMT suggests over 330,000 new cars will take to UK roads next month with motorists likely to be ordering £4.95 billion of new models.

Traditionally, Septmber is the second biggest month for registrations after March and one-in-six new cars in a year hit the road from 1 September. Buyers can choose from more than 300 fuel-efficient, technology-packed models on the market, representing one of the biggest ever choices for UK motorists.

There are some strong incentives for buyers apart from the low interest rates now being applied to loans.

Average new car CO2 emissions are now 138g/km with official miles per gallon figures typically exceeding 50mpg.

About 77% of new cars tested by Euro NCAP in 2011 achieved five stars and in the last 10 years road fatalities have fallen almost 50%.

Theft of vehicles has fallen almost 70% over the past 10 years, while theft from vehicles has also dropped significantly, down over 50%.

Based on this year’s buying trends, black and white cars are expected to make-up the lion’s share of September registrations, while red and brown car registrations growing compared with last year.

So far this year, the Supermini segment has proven to be the most popular, accounting for 36.6% of the total market, while Dual Purpose vehicles have enjoyed the largest growth in market share.

Market share of alternatively-fuelled vehicles is growing steadily with more hybrid, pure electric and biofuel models available than ever before.

Digital radio is rapidly becoming the ‘must-have’ option for new car buyers. Over a quarter of new cars have digital radio fitted as standard, as consumers look ahead to the planned 2015 switchover.

The registration plate changed in 1999 from alphabetical to the twice-yearly March and September system that uses the year as an identifier. The new system uses two letters at the start of the plate to identify the region a vehicle is registered in, the following two digits refer to the year (ie in 2012 the March plate changed to ‘12’, and in September it will be ‘62’). The final three letters are randomly allocated to new car dealerships across the country.

 

Our company car section will keep you updated on the latest news and you can see how models measure up in our business car comparisons section.

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Ralph Morton

Ralph Morton

Ralph Morton is an award-winning journalist and the founder of Business Car Manager (now renamed Business Motoring). Ralph writes extensively about the car and van leasing industry as well as wider fleet and company car issues. A former editor of What Car?, Ralph is a vastly experienced writer and editor and has been writing about the automotive sector for over 35 years.

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