Sales rose 0.06 percent year-on-year to 178,523 units with a rise in business demand for fleet vehicles compensating for a 6 percent drop in demand from members of the public.
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A total of 178,523 new cars were registered in July, compared with 178,420 for the corresponding month in 2015, taking the total number for the year to date to 1.6 million, up from 1.56 million for the corresponding period last year.
New auto registrations were up by just 0.1% to 178,523 in July, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders.
Diesel sales fell by 1.1% compared with July 2015, although demand for diesels for the year so far has risen by 1.9%, with more than 15,000 more diesels registered in 2016.
SMMT chief executive, Mike Hawes, said, “after a healthy start to 2016 and record registrations in 2015 the market is showing signs of cooling”.
But Samuel Tombs, Chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, suggested that a surge in vehicle sales in recent years driven by low interest rates was coming to an end.
In June, sales declined 0.8 percent.
Click through the gallery below to see the 10 bestselling cars from July.
However, Chris Bosworth, director of Strategy at Close Brothers Motor Finance, believes it is probably still too early to gauge the effect that Brexit is having on the market as most of the cars sold in July will have been ordered prior to the vote.
Although major foreign auto companies have not pulled any investment in the UK since the referendum, they were united in warning that Britain leaving the European Union could make the country less competitive, causing them to consider other destinations for new plants or models.
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With the vehicle industry booming, you may well be thinking of adding more of the newer models rolling off the production line to your forecourts and showrooms.
