It was the best February for new car registrations since 2004, with 83,395 added in total. The rise was largely driven by strong demand from private customers, which grew by 23%. Fleet demand fell slightly, down 1.4% across the same period. Despite this, fleet orders still accounted for more than half (53%) of all new vehicles.
Petrol registrations grew slightly faster than those for diesel cars, up 11% compared to 5.6%. The Ford Fiesta was the most popular model across the month, with 4,507 registrations. This was almost twice as many as the next biggest-sellers the VW Golf (2,574) and Nissan Qashqai (2,486). Vauxhall had three cars in the top 10: the Corsa in fourth (2,408), Astra in sixth (1,626) and Mokka in 10th (1,506).
Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said: “February is typically one of the quietest months of the year, ahead of March’s plate change, but this positive performance is encouraging and puts the sector in a good position for the coming 12 months.”
