The growth rate for new car finance bought by consumers exceeded the rise in new car registrations in April, demonstrating the continued attraction of finance to people looking to purchase a car according to figures released by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA).

The value of advances in April rose 10% year-on-year to £1.07bn for new cars, while the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders reported that new car registrations had risen by 8.2% in the same period.

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The disparity has led to a 0.2% rise in the penetration rate since March taking the figure to 75%, just below the record of 75.3% recorded earlier in the year.

The rise in values was not matched by the number of vehicles financed, however, with only a 4% rise compared to the same period last year. With the rise in registrations of prestige makers such as Jaguar, Porsche and Maserati far exceeding the growth rates for more mainstream marques in April, these figures demonstrate that the consumer is returning to the market looking for larger finance deals on higher value vehicles.

Used car finance showed stronger growth in April, in keeping with the push by finance companies to extend the PCP model to the used market. Finance for the used market grew 17% to a value of £893m and was used in the purchase of over 88,000 vehicles, a rise of 9%.

In the twelve months to the end of April the total value of advances for new cars rose 25% on the same period before, to nearly £13bn and used was up slightly more (26%) to just over £9.5bn.

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