Scottish car sales buck UK trend

Scotland is the only part of the UK with an increase in car sales

Car sales in Scotland rose by 6.7% in June compared to last year, industry figures have shown.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said more than 17,000 new cars were registered last month.

Every other part of the UK saw a drop in sales with a fall in England of 18% and 13% in Northern Ireland.

Small cars sold well and the most popular model in Scotland was the Vauxhall Corsa, with 2,110 registered in June alone.

However, the figures showed that the trend in car sales was still downwards.

TOP 10 SELLING CARS IN THE SCOTLAND - JUNE 2009 Vauxhall Corsa: 2,110 Ford Fiesta: 1,188 Ford Focus: 944 Vauxhall Astra: 580 Mini: 403 Volkswagen Polo: 372 Renault Megane: 364 Ford Mondeo: 353 Fiat Panda: 344 Peugeot 308: 300 Source: SMMT

The number of cars sold so far this year is 15.8% lower than in 2008.

But the decline in car sales in the UK as a whole slowed last month.

The 15.7% fall in new registrations in June was much smaller than the 25% drop in May.

The SMMT said it believed it was seeing the positive impact of the government's car scrappage scheme.

The scheme, which offers a £2,000 discount on a new car in return for scrapping vehicles over 10 years old, accounted for about 10% of sales.

It came into effect on 18 May.