Car sales top 225,000 in nine days of August

About 226,000 new 'M' registration cars were sold in the first nine days of August, of which 120,000 are thought to have been sold on the first day of the month. That compares with more than 249,000 sold in the first 10 days of August 1993.

Manufacturers said it was too early to draw any conclusions for the month as a whole. But there are mixed views as to whether predictions of more than 500,000 August sales are realistic.