Average retail prices for new cars in the UK rose 3.2% during the 12 months to October 2004.

The PricewaterhouseCoopers and eurocarprice.com Index of New Car Prices shows that average retail car prices in the UK last month were equal to the average for Western Europe and 1% higher than the average for the euro currency zone.

The index is based on data from JATO Dynamics Ltd (www.jato.com) and measures the retail price (the price published by the manufacturer inclusive of taxes) of more than 100 representative cars in 19 European countries.

In the last 12 months, the average retail price of a car in Western Europe has risen by 3%.

The strongest movement in retail car prices was in Spain where prices rose by 4.3% during the 12 months to October. The weakest price movement was in Hungary where retail prices decreased by 3.9%.

The current trend is for European retail car prices to rise more slowly than a year ago.

The fullsize MPV segment of the market showed the largest increase in average pre-tax prices in Western Europe during the 12 months to October: 5.1%. The weakest segment was the Mini segment, where prices remained unchanged.

Average price movements in the main volume segments were:

Small 1.9%

Lower Medium 4.2%

Upper Medium 2.5%

Executive 4.9%.

The average pre-tax price of cars in the UK (converted to euros) rose 2.5% in the 12 months to October. Pre-tax prices in the UK are 4% higher than the average for Western Europe and 5% higher than the average for the euro currency zone. Pre-tax car prices in the whole of Western Europe rose by 1.6% in the year to October.