Van sales down by a quarter in September

Van registrations fell in September despite the boost of the change to new '58 number plates. However, truck sales are still well ahead of last year.

Sales of vans, chassis cabs and pick-ups below 3.5t were down by almost a quarter compared with 2007 to 36,512, with the big loser being the pick-up market, which has more than halved to under 600 in September.

Registrations of lighter vans (below 1.8t), were down in September by 29.2% to 5,400 and heavy vans also suffered a 24% decline to 23,700 units, while medium vans (1.8t-2.6t) were up by 7% to just over 6,000.

September's truck sales are marginally (3.6%) ahead of the same time last year with 6,185 registrations, although the year-to-date sales are still 22% higher at more than 44,000 units.