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UK September Sales, Up 11 Percent

The extension of the country's scrappage scheme can come only as a pice of good news for the British automotive industry. Ever since it was set in place, the scheme boosted UK sales into "+" and September is no exception.

"The extension of the scheme will help to sustain demand through the latter part of this year and into 2010. This will allow economic recovery to strengthen and safeguard valuable industrial capability," Paul Everitt, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) CEO was quoted as saying by just-auto.com.

The ninth month of the year brought sales totaling 367,929 units or, if you like, a 11.4 percent increase compared to the same month of 2008. This also means the market stood some 30,000 units above the forecasted value, but still 51,361 units down from the September 2007 all time high.

"New car registrations rose for the third month in a row in September. Market conditions remain challenging with demand being underpinned by the extremely successful scrappage incentive scheme," Everitt added.

September marks the third consecutive month for the UK automotive industry when growth is the defining factor. According to David Raistrick, UK Manufacturing Leader at Deloitte, the scheme is responsible for about 25 percent of the September figures, making it largely responsible for the increase.

"The 11.4% rise in new car registrations exceeds market expectations and is a much more promising increase than the previous two months' 6% and 2.7% rises, giving hope that the industry is on the slow road to recovery."

"The extension of an extra 100,000 vehicles will hopefully maintain the momentum that the automotive sector needs to achieve a long lasting recovery," Raistrick concluded.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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