THE cost of cars sold last month dropped by 1.58 per cent on August figures because of the difficult trading conditions.

Figures from independent monitor CarPriceCheck.com showed that average prices have fallen by 2.27 per cent since the start of August for more than a third of the 4,600 models available on the British market.

September was the biggest month-on-month fall since last February when changes in company car tax legislation helped fuel a price fall of 1.34 per cent.

The most aggressive manufacturers during the month were Renault, Nissan and the troubled Fiat Auto Group.

The cost of buying a Clio, Megane or Laguna from Renault dropped by an average of 1.96 per cent, with Nissan slashing prices by 2.72 per cent on its models and Fiat cutting a similar 2.74 per cent figure on no fewer than 90 per cent of its entire range.

Alfa Romeo followed in the lead of its parent company, Fiat, by cutting prices by 1.56 per cent on its most popular 147 and 156 models.

The last time average prices fell in a single month for Alfa was last January.

In August, Britain's Big Three of Ford, Vauxhall and Peugeot had boosted forecourt discounts by an average of 1.6 per cent.

Prices continued to fall for Ford and Vauxhall last month (down a further 1.8 per cent and 1.12 per cent respectively) but Peugeot delivered a more restrained 0.18 per cent average increase.

The least price active manufacturers during September were BMW, Volvo and VW.

Steve Evans, chief executive of CarPriceCheck.com, said: "Although it'll still be a record year, the market is depressed at the moment. Some manufacturers could be about to record a fall in sales of anywhere between 12-20 per cent on last September."

Dealers are competing more and more on price, which makes it a buyers' market."

"But the fact is, dealers are finding it harder to find consumers who are increasingly willing to look further afield and take their time before committing to buy."

CarPriceCheck collates, indexes and analyses transaction prices for every model available in the UK (4,544) from franchised dealers, manufacturers and Internet retailers to deliver the only real time data on UK sourced vehicles in the market.

The same process is applied to all the major car supermarkets, importers and motor retailers involved in importing vehicles from Europe.