Sales of new cars accelerate

New car sales rose again last month, figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) showed.

There were 189,514 new registrations in June – a 3.49 per cent increase on the June 2011 total.

Last month’s purchases took year-so-far sales to 1,057,680 – a 2.72 per cent rise on January-June 2011.

Private sales rose 9.8 per cent compared with June 2011, and are up 8.7 per cent for the first half of this year. Total new-car sales for the April-June period have risen 4.8 per cent.