British car sales down, but Tata's Jaguar up

London, Nov 7 (IANS) Sales of new cars in Britain fell by 23 percent in October - the steepest fall for 17 years - but Tata-owned Jaguar bucked the trend, industry figures show.

Figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) showed a total of 128,352 new car registrations in October, down 23 percent from a year ago.

The SMMT said 1.92 million new cars had been sold in Britain so far this year, down 8.7 percent on the same period in 2007.

'Dodge, Jaguar and Volvo were among the few manufacturers to improve volumes in the month,' the SMMT said. However, sales of Land Rover, also owned by Tata Motors, fell by 58 percent last month.

'October has proved another difficult month for the British motor industry and action is needed to help restore consumer confidence and encourage buyers back to the showrooms,' said SMMT chief executive Paul Everitt.

'Cuts in interest rates that are swiftly passed on to consumers, scrapping planned increases in vehicle excise duty and maintaining public expenditure on new vehicles are essential parts of the package required by industry,' he added.

Speaking before the figures were released, Jaguar Land Rover chief executive David Smith said people were delaying buying until they had 'more confidence about which way the economy is going'.