Importers' grab
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NEW registrations of commercial vehicles dropped by 6.2 per cent in November but sales for the first 11 months of the year were 15.4 per cent higher than for 1977.
But the importers' share of the market soared during the year from 17.2 per cent in 1977 to 23.14 per cent for the first II months of the year.
Ford was responsible for the drop in the number of vans registered from British manufacturers, with a fall from 2,186 in November 1977 to just 622 last month.
But the numbers for the first 11 months of the year were only marginally down at 17,000, compared with 17,849 in 1977.
Total British registrations for the month were down by 231 though the total of all makes registered in Britain was up by only 56 — but the number for the first 11 months of the year overall was up from 57,178 to 66,450 — a rise of 9,272 over the same period last year.