So another delightful summer week comes and goes, as the country drags itself another 7 days closer to the sporting extravaganza of the Olympics. The headlines have been dominated by a story about some chap called Beckham not getting picked for the Team GB football team. Apparently the fact that a 38 year old model/footballer has missed out on playing in a team that no-one cares about has been a reason for great national debate!

Elsewhere, there were a couple of fascinating (if slightly contradictory) snippets this week from the ladies and gents at the SMMT. Firstly, more good news on the new car front, where registrations increased again in June by 3.5 percent, propelled mainly by private buyers. Whilst the rise was not as strong as May's 23-month record of 7.9 percent, the market was 5 percent ahead of forecasts for the second quarter.

This is more great news for those in the industry and, personally speaking, I'm hoping it's a sign that some confidence is slowly returning to these shores. Like many others, I've been caught out by the recession - I invested in a warehouse full of deluxe garlic-presses just before it all kicked off and it's been a nightmare trying to shift them when people can't afford garlic!

Interestingly, in the same week that these figures were released, there was another report that revealed cash strapped motorists are keeping their cars longer, with the average car now a rather precise 7.44 years old. However, this could actually be a false economy as the average new car is 20% more efficient than a typical seven year old car, saving around £400 each year (maybe motorists are cottoning onto this fact - hence the rise in new car sales.)

The report also shows that the number of petrol vehicles on the road has dropped to the lowest number since 1988, with diesels now taking 50.6% market share. Clearly this is driven by fuel efficiency demand, but it will be interesting to see if this trend continues with the growing health and air quality discussions around diesels. The past decade also saw the UK car parc grow by 9% which is small compared to the the previous decade's 17%.

So, depending on which report you read, consumers could either be rushing out and buying new cars or hanging onto them for longer than ever - who says that statistics never lie?

Have a great weekend.
The Spoiler