Top car manufacturers such as Ford, Nissan, Jaguar, Land Rover, Vauxhall, Bentley, BMW, Toyota and Honda are all contributing to making Britain the fourth largest vehicle manufacturer in Europe. These manufacturers combine to provide 820,000 jobs which depend on the automotive industry. Although this is a staggering number of people, it is still 54,000 fewer than five years ago before the financial crisis hit us .

The demand has fallen
During the years leading up to the recession, it was generally believed that there were far too many car companies manufacturing too many vehicles, and since then the demand for cars has fallen. There is little reason to suppose it will return to pre-recession levels, however, the UK has seen an increase in car sales mainly due to the government’s scrappage scheme.

‘Scrappage Scheme’
A voluntary scheme for motor dealers, the scrappage scheme offered consumers £2,000 off the price of a new vehicle if they were to scrap their old car. The scheme ran from mid May 2009 until February 2010, however, in February the government announced that an extra month had been added to the deadline in order to help dealers and manufacturers prepare for the final stage of the scheme. In 2007 the UK purchased 2.4 million new cars here in the UK, however, in 2009 we only bought 1.9 million. Approximately 285,000 of the 1.9 million sold in 2009 were due to the hefty discounts available thanks to the government’s scrappage scheme.

Although the recession was a disaster for the automotive industry, the big players such as Jaguar and General Motors managed to pull through, and company bosses are optimistic about the times ahead.

At present, the combustion engine is generally fitted as standard, however, we’re slowly moving towards alternative ways of powering cars especially considering that the EU will fine any manufacturer whose fleet fails to average 130g of CO2 per km by 2015 . At the recent Paris Motor Show there was plenty of talk surrounding hybrid cars, even from the companies that are currently producing sports cars.

Cheap Car Insurance
Due to the economic downturn saving money is becoming increasingly desirable, so finding cheap car insurance is a bonus. Thankfully we’re living in the Digital Age and finding cheap car insurance is easy thanks to the World Wide Web (WWW). In a matter of minutes and with just a few clicks you can have access to hundreds of web pages offering cheap car insurance.

About the Author
Hannah Warder writes for MediaVest (Manchester) on a number of topics including ways to find cheap car insurance.