Northern Ireland has bucked the downward trend of new car registrations in the UK with a 6.74% increase on last year.

Scotland, England and Wales were down 17.04%, 10.11% and 10.01% respectively.

The best selling car in Northern Ireland last month was the Mitsubishi Colt compared to the Ford Focus in England and Scotland and the Ford Fiesta in Wales.

Here are tables of the latest regional figures for new car registrations from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.

Britain		Feb-05		Feb-06		% change		YTD 2005		YTD 2006		% change
England		63,476		62,791		-1.08		215,494		193,710		-10.11
Northern Ireland		5,607		5,853		4.39		12,457		13,296		6.74
Scotland		5,424		4,837		-10.82		20,185		16,746		-17.04
Wales		2,120		2,070		-2.36		8,481		7,632		-10.01
Grand total		76,627		75,551		-1.40		256,617		231,384		-9.83

*Note: Channel Islands & Isle of Man new car registrations are not included in this table