New car discounts have increased by more than 6% year-on-year according to research from What Car? published in its Intelligence report for March.

The discount figures do not include the value of manufacturer-backed incentives like finance deposit allowances, launch period free option packs and discounts APR finance.

This increase in typical showroom transaction price savings has happened in spite of the efforts of car makers to try to wean customers off high brochure price reductions and on to a more opaque range of finance-based and bonus-based  incentives that can be easily adjusted, depending on market  conditions and business  priorities, without unduly unsettling market confidence.

What Car? believes it will be hard for manufacturers to scale back such discounting expectations unless their dealer networks start to consistently defend their profit margins with greater vigour.

However, in response to improving new car market conditions many car makers are raising dealer sales targets, which will keep the pressure on dealers to keep new-car orders ?owing.

Skoda was at the top of the table for the highest discounts across its range with a 14% saving. The What Car? stats show that a double digit discount is available across 20% of manufacturers included within its research.

Land Rover, Mini and Mazda were the brands with the smallest amount of discounting across their model ranges.

The 10 biggest percentage discounts 

1 Skoda Fabia 1.2 70 se 25%
2 Citroen C3 1.4 VTi 95 vt 22%
3 Citroen C4 Picasso 1.6 vti 120 20.3%
4 Seat Ibiza 1.4 85 se 3dr 20.2%
5 Fiat Punto 1.2 8v pop 20.2%
6 Vauxhall Zafira19.3%
7 Kia Procee’d 19.16%
8 Skoda Roomster 18%
9 BMW Z4 3.0 sDrive35iS DCT 17.9%
10 Vauxhall Insignia 17.5%

Bottom 10 What Car? target price falls since last month

1 Honda Civic 1.4 i-VTEC se -3.2%
2 Nissan Note -2.5%
3 Citroën Grand C4 Picasso -2.0%
4 BMW X6 -1.8%
5 Volkswagen Polo -1.8%
6 Renault Mégane Sport Tourer -1.5%
7 Audi A6 -1.5%
8 Audi A4 -1%
9 BMW X3 -1%
10 BMW 3 series -0.75%