New car sales in Scotland bucked the UK trend in May, with a 2.9% increase north of the border contrasting with a decline in sales across the United Kingdom.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders revealed that 13,115 new cars were sold last month, compared to 12,741 in May 2010.
The UK market contracted, meanwhile, with 150,431 new registrations down from 153,095 in May last year.
In Tayside, nine more cars were sold last month than the previous May, with 926 sales a rise of 1.2%. Fife saw sales drop, from 705 to 694 (-1.6%).
Vauxhall remains the best-selling manufacturer in Scotland, with 10,704 cars sold so far this year, with Ford second on 8939 sales.
Volkswagon, Nissan, Renault, Audi, Peugeot, BMW, Kia and Honda occupy the next most popular slots.
Scottish Motor Trade Association chief executive Douglas Robertson said, “We are pleased to see that the sales figures have continued their stabilisation of the past few months.
“Perhaps now we are just beginning to see evidence that the second half of the year will show the improvement we have been predicting would happen around now since December of last year.
“With increasing fuel economy and higher standards of specification on new cars we believe that consumers will be well rewarded for buying a new car in the months ahead.
“All that is now needed is for the banks to increase the amount of affordable finance being made available.”