VAN sales last month survived the seasonal nosedive and were fractionally up on July 1996 due entirely to a significant rise in 1.8-3.5 tonne vehicles. They rose from 3,688 units in July last year to 4,453 units last month, while sales of light vans dropped from 2,488 in July last year to 1,912.

Nevertheless sales of vans in the first seven months of the year are up on the same period last year at 109,102 (1996: 102,883).