Fleets and lease companies continued to take fewer new cars during the last month of 2008, meaning last year was one of the worst for fleet and business car registrations.

The end of year sales figures for new cars and vans show that over all new car registrations fell 21.2% in December.

This meant the full year total was down 11.3% to 2,131,795 units from 2,404,007 in 2007.

Large fleets with more than 25 cars and lease companies put just under 14,000 fewer cars onto their books last month.

This brought the total number of new cars that went into lease companies and large fleets down to 1,109,963 last year, which was down by 7.1% on 2007 full year figures.

The number of new cars bought by small fleets with fewer than 25 cars, which are generally operated by small businesses, fell more dramatically.

Just 6,500 cars went to such fleets last month, bringing the total for the year to 129,573 – a fall of more than 20%.

Sales of vans were hit even harder last month falling 26.6% for the month and down 14.3% for the year.

Despite the price gap between petrol and diesel at the pumps, more and more car buyers are opting for diesel.

As a result, the diesel market share reached an all-time high of 43.6%.

It is predicted that this year, new car sales will fall to 1.78 million – the lowest level for 17 years.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, chief executive, Paul Everitt, said: “2009 will be another difficult year for the UK automotive industry with new vehicle registrations and production significantly reduced.” 

  • Click here for December 2008 new car sales figures.