Heavy goods sales stronger as vans falter
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• HGV sales remain strong but sales of light CVs have dropped during the past couple of months, according to the April sales figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.
In the over-3.5f market, sales for the year to date have increased by 4.6% over the same period last year.
Smaller manufacturers have generally done better at the expense of the largest firms: New Ford and Dar are both slightly down on last year's figures.
The only manufacturers to manage consistent sales growth this year have been Renault and Seddon Atkinson, although Volvo and Scania have recorded an overall increase, despite uncertainty about their future.
The small van market (up to 1.8t GVW) has shrunk by 16% compared with the first four months of 1999. Ford and Renault have shown the biggest falls in sales, suffering from the improved performance of Citroen and Vauxhall in particular.
The panel van sector (1.83.5t GVW) is looking more cheerful—it's up by 6.8% over last year—but once again Ford's sales are down while most other manufacturers have increased sales. Nevertheless, Ford is still by far the biggest firm in this sector (with 32.5% of the year's sales so far) and should get a boost as the new Transit comes on stream.