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After months of soaring energy costs and plummeting house prices, last week gave us another business horror story; the worst August new car market since 1966. According to trade body SMMT (which publishes the figures) and RMIF (which parrots them), the time has come for government action.
Not a bad pitch when you think about it. Propping up failing banks and keeping house prices at unsustainable levels seems to be the government’s job these days. Why not something for the motor industry? How about a road tax holiday for new 4×4 owners?
SMMT’s statement was a considerable departure for the trade body. In the past, they’ve been criticised for talking the market up, often on the most tenuous slither of good news: Record month for elastic-band powered cars; green car sales rise by three units. That sort of thing.
This time though, they’ve really over-played a bad news story. The 1966 line wasn’t untrue. It was the weakest August since England won the world cup. But that’s only because, until 1999, August was the year’s only ‘plate change’ month. Remember that? Midnight dealer parties on 31 July, followed by a bumper market of half a million cars
Not a like-for-like comparison? Who cares. ‘Worst since 1966′ made a neat headline for a BBC obsessed with talking-up recession.
Last month was dreadful for the industry; that’s a fact. It was the worst August in nearly a decade, but it wasn’t quite apocalypse now. We’ll have to wait till September for that.
Besides which, haven’t we had enough Britain bashing? The figures still presented some good news on the home front. Last month, one lucky owner picked up a brand new Rover, doubling total sales for the thought-to-be-deceased car maker in 2008.
Like the economy, maybe there’s still life in the old dog yet.