Total new car registrations last month rose 3.0% to 68,736 units, while new car sales to private buyers only increased by 2.1%.

Leech commented: ‘UK car sales continued to grow in February driven largely by cheap finance offered by car manufacturers but also bolstered by continuing PPI claim payouts and substantial fuel cost savings available from switching to a new car.

‘Although there have now been two consecutive years of monthly growth in new car sales, the rate of increase has slowed over the past six months. The reason for this is that the private-buyer fuelled boom in new car sales looks to be coming to an end – new car sales to private buyers only increased by 2.1% in February, down from the double-digit growth of previous months. Fortunately, fleet sales have taken up some of the slack, and I expect them to remain robust in the coming months. Now that the UK car market is back at its long-run average, it feels like we have finally returned back to normal.’