The largest car dealership group in the UK, Pendragon, said that sales of premium cars were recovering despite the end of the scrappage scheme . The chief executive said that new BMWs, Audis and Jaguars were all selling well, due to low car finance costs and potentially hefty discounts on new car prices.

Trevor Finn said that many of the premium purchases were by companies, known as ‘discretionary’ rather than ‘utility’ purchases. Confidence is seen as returning to executive level, which could be behind the increase in new car sales.

Finn reportedly commented: We have taken actions which give us confidence that we will improve the performance of the group in 2010 despite the anticipated difficult markets.