By Ian Lamb, motoring correspondent

THE NEW car market cooled even further during February with the biggest year on year decrease in sales for two years.

Sales totalled 5424 cars, a decrease of 16.1% compared with February last year. It was the largest dip in the market (which has seen an unparalleled four consecutive years of record sales) since January 2003 when a 16.5% decrease was recorded.

Uncharacteristically, the Scottish sales performance fell behind the national results, which also saw a hefty decrease of 15.7% to a national total of 77,092 new cars.

Douglas Robertson, chief executive at the SMTA, was yesterday putting a brave face on the latest set of statistics.

“Any decrease is disappointing but, while the percentages are high, we are talking fairly small numbers here,” he said. “We also have to remember that the new 05 plates came on stream on March 1. Many customers still wait for the new registration plates and that is bound to have had an adverse effect on February sales.”

Tayside suffered the second largest drop in new car sales during February with a decrease of 26.7% compared with February 2004, while Fife didn’t fare much better with a decrease of 18%.

Not one of Scotland’s nine regions managed to record an increase.

Renault retained the market lead with 14.7% followed by Ford (13.4%) and Vauxhall (11.2%).

The top 10 selling cars in Scotland during February were: 1 Renault Megane; 2 Ford Focus; 3 Fiat Punto; 4 Ford Fiesta; 5 Vauxhall Astra; 6 Renault Clio; 7 Honda Civic; 8 VW Golf; 9 Vauxhall Corsa; 10 Peugeot 206.

* All figures supplied by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.