New car plate numbers could spell bargain buys

LONDON, Aug 30 (Reuters) The arrival this week of the latest ''56'' number plates is expected to drive a mini-boom in car sales, but buyers could still pick up a bargain as dealers look to shift unsold stock after months of poor trading.

John Proctor of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said September sales are expected to be about 400,000 vehicles.

While that number of new registrations would signify a hike on previous months -- July saw only 168,015 units sold -- it would not be enough to lift yearly sales figures, he said.

''The days when a new plate registration led to a massive rush in sales have long gone,'' said Proctor.

In 1999 Britain introduced twice-yearly registration changes -- March and September -- to avoid the annual bulge of buying every August.

Any dealer optimism about the allure of the latest plates will be tempered by the memory of indifferent sales in March.

Sales of ''06'' cars then, while better than other months, still showed a drop of 1.6 percent year-on-year, indicating that 2006 will be worse than 2005. This is bad news for dealers, but may work in buyers' favour.

''The trend for 2006 looks to be heading down'', said Proctor.

Figures for the year to August already show a drop of 4.2 percent in new car registrations to just over 1.4 million vehicles against the previous year.

The SMMT attributes the drop to soaring petrol prices compounded by August's interest rate rise.

Against this backdrop, car dealers will be looking to offer attractive discounts which they hope, coupled with the cachet of the new ''56'' registration, will pull in the punters over coming weeks.

Sellers will also be conscious of needing to move on any cars they have pre-registered with ''06,'' which some dealers do to secure bonus payments from manufacturers.

That means that buyers who want a new car but are not bothered about having an ''old'' plate should be able to negotiate price reductions.

Reuters KR DS1457