A total of 7.85 million people intend to buy a car between March and February this year, a rise of 55,000 people, according to latest Sainsbury’s Bank Car Buying Index.

Given this increase, £63.27 billion could be spent on purchasing cars within the next six months, £9 billion more than the findings from the previous index. The survey was taken by 2,031 people across the UK between February and March.

Steven Baillie, loans manager, Sainsbury’s Bank said: “We found that nearly 17% of what people intend to spend on purchasing a vehicle will be financed through personal loans. This would equate to around £10.56 billion, which is almost 16% more than the period September 2005 to February 2006.

"With regards to car sales, for the first two months of this year, sales of brand new cars were widely reported to be down when compared to the same period in 2005. However, our findings show that more people are planning to buy brand new and second hand cars, which is good news for the motor industry."

The bank’s research shows that 5.29 million people will be looking to buy a second hand car while 2.25 million are planning to buy a new one. 2.27 million people plan to spend more than £10,000 on a car while 652,000 are planning on spending more than £21,000. Furthermore, just over a quarter of potential buyers (27%) will look to fund their new cars with a loan.

According to Sainsbury’s, the South West is set to see the biggest rise in the number of people buying a car with an increase of 8% on the previous six months; while the South East is expected to spend the most money (£13.5bn), followed by London (£9.0bn). The North East saw the biggest fall in the number of people planning to buy a car (-7%).

Here are the percentage totals each area of the UK is predicted to spend on the purchase of a car in the next six months.

  • South West 22%
  • Scotland 19%
  • Greater London 19%
  • West Midlands 18%
  • South East 18%
  • Wales 17%
  • North West 15%
  • Yorks/Humberside 15%
  • East Midlands 15%
  • East Anglia 13%
  • North East 10%