Fleet registrations dropped by a third in May, backing recent claims that fleets are extending lease contracts and also investigating buying used cars instead of new.

Overall registrations also fell sharply as the market waits to feel the true impact of the scrappage scheme for private buyers.

The SMMT revealed late last month that 35,000 cars have been ordered on the scrappage scheme so far, although few have been delivered yet.

One manufacturer fleet boss privately expressed concerns that, due to supply shortages on smaller models, it will struggle to hit the Government’s four-month order-to-delivery deadline.

Last month fleet sales reached 64,492 cars, a 33.2% decline on May 2008. As a result, fleet’s share of the new car market fell from 53.9% to 47.8%.

Sales to businesses operating 25 vehicles or fewer fell from 9,282 to 7,050, although the sector’s market share is static at 5.2%.

Year-to-date, fleet registrations stand at 365,174, down 29.5% on 2008. Business sales have fallen 36.2% to 42,245.

The figures make grim reading, with nearly all car manufacturers recording large drops.

Saab, Renault and Vauxhall were badly hit in May, with fleet sales down 89.5%, 67.2% and 50% respectively.

For the year-to-date, they are down 59.9%, 67.2% and 30.7% respectively.

While the issues surrounding Saabhave impacted on fleets’ decisions to invest in the brand, the issue for Renault looks more serious.

It sold just 865 cars to fleets in May. While Renault took action last year to move away from short-cycle rental business, it simply hasn’t found any incremental business to replace it with.

In May, the Ford Focus remained the best-selling car in fleet, clocking 5,057 registrations.

The Ford Fiesta moved up to second, knocking the Vauxhall Corsa to third.

Nissan’s Qashqai crossover model leaped into eighth place, helped by the addition of a value N-tec trim level which adds Bluetooth and sat- nav as standard.

Year-to-date, the Focus remains the best seller, carving out a 7,000-unit lead over its smaller stablemate, the Fiesta supermini.

Vauxhall’s Corsa is close behind its arch-rival, with the Astra in fourth.

 

The new Volkswagen Golf, launched earlier this year, continues to make a strong start to its model life, hitting 12,302 registrations to the end of May.

Elsewhere, the Ford Mondeo pipped the new Vauxhall Insignia to sixth spot, while Audi’s A3, helped by the low economy TDIe diesel engine and complimentary trim upgrades, made it to eighth spot.

Peugeot’s SR business-focused trim level, which includes Bluetooth telephone link and sat-nav as standard, helped the 308 to ninth spot while the Nissan Qashqai is in tenth thanks to its very strong performance in May.

For the manufacturer table, Ford’s sales year-to-date are down 17.6%, while arch-rival Vauxhall fell by just over 30%.

Falls of around a quarter were recorded by Volkswagen, BMW and Audi, while Peugeot dropped by 34% and Citroen by 39%.

Bright spots are few and far between – Nissan increased sales by 0.4% in May but year-to-date it is down by 21.4%. Hyundai was up by nearly 42% in May but down year-to-date by 13.7%.

The only carmaker to record an increase year-to-date is Jaguar – up 8.3% thanks to the launch of the revised XF range and its new diesel-engined models.