The value of advances provided for new cars
sold at retail rose by 33%, year-on-year,
in March to £1.54bn and by 34% in the first quarter of 2012 to
£2.35bn.

In the 12 months to March, £7.52bn was
advanced in private new registrations, a rise of 13% compared to
the previous 12 months.

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By product, leasing was up 50%, hire purchase
by 37% and PCP by 30%.

The figures from the Finance & Leasing
Association (FLA) expanded on
those released earlier this month showing a total rise of 22% in
car finance in the UK, year-on-year.

A total of 108,450 new cars were sold at
retail on finance in March, up 22% year-on-year, and for the
quarter the figure was 168,861, an increase of 21%, meaning 65.9%
of all new cars sold through dealerships in the 12 months to March
were sold on finance, a total of 551,834 units and up 8%.

The split in value and volume roughly mirrors
Q1 results from both
the Renault and
BMW Groups, which found total outstanding values owed to their
finance arms to be growing faster than the number of customers
taking finance.

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Used and fleet

Used cars were also up but not as
aggressively; up 2% by value of advance and 6% by volume of cars in
March, and up 6% and 9% respectively in Q1.

Nearly 750,000 used cars were sold on finance
to customers in the 12 months to March, up 5% compared to the
previous 12 months, totalling £6.86bn in finance, an increase of
4%.

Also of note was a relative stall in the
number of new cars sold to businesses, up by only 1% in March,
compared to March 2011, while the total of used cars sold to
businesses dropped 15%.

richard.brown@vrlfinancialnews.com