It has been predicted that motorists will spend over £5 billion on new cars when a new 12-plate registration is launched in March.
Over 350,000 cars will be sold during the march plate change which The Society Of Motor Manufacturers and Trade expect to be worth over 20% of total car sales for this year.
March is usually the busiest month for the car industry with more than 300 different models available for consumers to choose from. Customers are looking for vehicles that are fuel efficient, safe, comfortable and practical. September is another busy period for the industry because it is another plate changing month.
The UK economy is estimated to receive a £1billion pound boost due to the VAT received from the sales. Car registration plates were changed in 1999 to a twice yearly system that uses the year as an identifier. The system uses two letters at the start to identify the region in which the car is located. The second 2 digits refers to the year the plate was fitted. ’12’ for the March plate and ’62’ for the September plate. The last 3 letters are randomly generated letters allocated to car dealerships across the country.
Whilst the new plate is popular there has been a surge in personalised license plate registrations.
Blue and silver models of vehicle are expected to be the most popular next month with the Supermini segment, after a large amount of market success in the same period last year, expected to dominate the market as far as vehicle size is concerned.