STALLING car sales have been blamed on pre-general election jitters, according to the quarterly Autoglass Car Confidence Index. Just a week after March new car sales figures were published which revealed a year-on-year decline of 0.23% with fleet sales down 3.4%, the survey reveals that the number of people planning to buy cars has crashed by a fifth.

Last January and August 36% of motorists planned to update their vehicles in the next year - now that figure has dropped to 30%, according to the Index, which said three in five motorists concerned about the election fear they will be worse off under a new government.

'Motorists are stalling plans to change cars until they discover how their buying power will be affected under a new government,' said Autoglass manager Andy Edyvean. 'Cars are major purchases and the political climate is clearly affecting buyers' attitudes.'