While some corporate cash hoarders are able to benefit from the most pro-buyer car market in UK history, real people living in real houses clearly can’t: private sales of cars were down 38 per cent in August compared with the same month in 2009.

New car registrations overall were almost a fifth lower in August than 12 months earlier, but this lower drop reflects company fleets moving in to buy at knock-down prices.

“It’s not just that sales are down, said dealer Dave Renshall from Wednesbury, “the margins are cut to the bone too. Nobody is making money in the trade this year.”

“A large part of the decline in registrations this year reflects the expiry of the scrappage scheme,” said Allan Monks, economist at JPMorgan. “But even given this, the level of private registrations is looking very low – and the trajectory is downwards.”

In a later post today, The Slog will quote some observations by US guru Robert Reich about private consumers in the US. His line remains that with any economy requiring private consumption – the US economy is over 70% dependent on this – recovery at any meaningful level is simply unsustainable.

The Slog agrees. Western capitalism needs a new model based more on supplying conservation sectors and exports to developing Asia. What these latest car (SMMT) data show is that the days of consumer as robotic buyer have gone for some time – perhaps forever.