Despite the latest Sainsbury’s Bank Car Buying Index results predicting a sharp rise in the number of people planning to buy a new car between October 2005 and March 2006, the SMMT has said it expects sales to remain steady.

According to the research, 7.3m people intend to buy a car between October 2005 and March 2006. This represents a substantial increase over the previous Index, which covered the period February to July 2005, when 5.4m people indicated they were intending to buy a car.

Given this increase, says Sainsbury’s Bank, £58.5bn could be spent on purchasing cars within the next six months, £17.46bn more than the findings from the previous index.

Rachel Brereton, loans manager, Sainsbury’s Bank says: “Despite rising concerns on the cost of petrol and owning a car, our research suggests a strong six months ahead for the car industry.”

At the time of going to press, the SMMT did not have September registration figures, but a spokesperson told AM: “Although we would not knock the research, we are expecting new car sales for next year of around 2.45m.

“We feel the market is stable and secure, but we are not expecting a large increase in sales.”