The new car market has declined for a seventh consecutive month, industry figures show.
More than 158,000 new cars were registered in October, down 12.2% on the same month last year, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
The organisation blamed a fall in consumer confidence for the drop in demand with 2.2million new cars registered so far this year – a decrease of 4.6% on the same period in 2016.
In Grampian new car sales were down 17.9% year-on-year to 1,163 while the Highlands saw sales of new motors drop by 15.7% to 573.
Demand for diesel cars continued to drop sharply –down 29.9% in October and 14.9% for the year so far.
But petrol models were up 2.7% last month, while alternatively-fuelled vehicles rose 36.9% to achieve a market share of 5.2%.
The government recently announced plans to ban the sale of all conventional diesel and petrol cars by 2040 in a bid to meet European Union limits on harmful nitrogen dioxide pollution. It is also considering funding measures to cut pollution with a tax on new diesel vehicles. Howard Archer, chief economic adviser to the EY Item Club, said: “Not only was October’s drop sharp, but it marked a seventh successive decline of falling car sales, thereby clearly pointing to a serious loss of momentum in the sector.
“This is even allowing for the fact that some car sales were undoubtedly brought forward into the first quarter of 2017 (when they were buoyant) by consumers and businesses looking to beat the changes to vehicle excise duty (VED) that were introduced in April.”