April Registrations Up Strongly In The UK - Don't Party Yet
The UK new car market was up a strong 14.8 percent in April.
UK’s SMMT says that April registrations stood at 163,357 units, and that registrations in the first four months of 2013 grew 8.9 percent to 768,555 units. However, even the SMMT warns not to read too much into this.
Throughout the year, the UK car market had been the only bright spot in an otherwise gloomy Europe. January through March, the UK already was up 7.4 percent, while all other major markets in Europe were down. The SSMT thinks growth looks higher than usual this month because “with high demand for some models in March and an early Easter break, a number of registrations may have been pushed in to April.” We have mentioned a similar effect in Germany.
April Registrations European Volume MarketsAprilYoYJan-AprYoYGERMANY284,4443.8%958,401-8.5%UNITED KINGDOM163,35714.8%768,5557.4%FRANCE157,859-5.2%591,741-12.0%ITALY117,625-10.8%474,308-12.0%SPAIN62,32010.8%243,186-7.0%BELGIUM53,0369.8%202,1962.8%NETHERLANDS30,538-26.0%146,063-30.0%April Sales for all countries in Europe will be released later in the month. Based on the results of Europe’s largest volume markets, which represent more than 80 percent of the EU’s total, we expect EU car sales to be flat to slightly positive for April, and down around 7 percent for the first four months of the year.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Reuters mentions several things: Less eager to put money in the bank since the interest rate is 0,5%. Banks paid 8.9 billion pounds to mis-sold PPI, average almost 3,000 pounds. London's thriving property market. That last one is influenced by uncertainty elsewhere as wealthy folks rather buy a house in London than put it in a savings account in Russia/Cyprus/Middle East http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/04/24/uk-britain-economy-autos-idUKBRE93N0FP20130424
They should drive straight to the dentist.