The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has raised its forecast for 2013 new car registrations, predicting that 2.216 million new vehicles will leave dealer forecourts by the end of the year.
Sales across the private, fleet and business sectors rose during July for the seventeenth month in succession, prompting the SMMT to revise its forecast for the rest of 2013.
The market grew by 12.7 per cent compared to the same month in 2012, with a total of 162,228 units registered last month. In addition to this, 2,432 alternatively-fuelled vehicles were sold in July, a 17% increase on last July's figures.
SMMT Interim Chief Executive, Mike Baunton, said: "Strong business and consumer confidence in July saw the new car market continue to rise, posting double-digit growth in the month. Now we have evidence of consistent growth, we have raised our forecast for 2013 new car registrations to 2.216 million units, an increase of over 8% on last year.
"Recently, we've seen a range of economic indicators point to improving conditions and our raised sales forecast emphasises how positively we view the rest of 2013."
The Ford Fiesta remained the UK's most popular car, with 9,089 examples finding homes last month. The Ford Focus came in second with 7,229 sales, followed by the Vauxhall Astra with 6,165.
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