The used car sector also reported new business volumes down 17% in April to 57,116, and by 3% in the latest twelve-month period, to 730,921.

The value of point-of-sale finance advanced on new cars in April was £915m, up 3% year on year; £528m was advanced by FLA members to used car buyers, the same figure as in April 2005. In the past 12 months, £12.147bn was advanced for new car purchase, and £6.618bn for used cars.

Commenting on the latest figures, Geraldine Kilkelly, FLA’s Head of Research, said: “The strength of growth in March has been followed by an equally weak April, dashing hopes of a sustained recovery in consumer demand for dealer finance. The first four months of 2006 indicated zero growth in the number of private new cars financed via dealerships and the finance penetration rate fell back 0.3% to 48.1%. Conditions remain tough for point of sale lenders with new car registrations for 2006 forecast to be almost 4% down on 2005.