A total of 16,468 new cars have been sold so far in 2010 as a result of the Government scrappage scheme, but the figure is iikely to be closer to 18,000 by the end of the year.
In all, 87,988 new cars have been sold in 2010 so far, a 54 percent increase on 2009.
Commenting on the figures, Director General of SIMI, Alan Nolan said, "No matter what happens in the Budget, the Motor Industry is very grateful for the positive impact of Scrappage during 2010. This has fuelled the recovery in new car sales and in business overall, including an increase of over 3,200 employees over last year but this recovery is clearly fragile as we have seen from some recent business failures. We believe that the benefits of extending Scrappage are very clear."