An island car dealer said ’pent up’ island customers are flocking to look at and buy vehicles.

The prominent businessman, who has businesses in the island, said July figures would show they were on a par with what they were this time last year.

He said: ’In a nutshell I would say confidence is returning to the Isle of Man.

’We are now as busy as we were before the lockdown.’

The businessman, who asked not to be named, said there was a ’pent-up demand to look at and buy cars when we reopened’ after the lockdown.

He added that he sensed people were feeling confident about spending money and acknowledged that some will have built up their bank balances during the coronavirus lockdown.

’I’m pleased to say that confidence appears to be returning to the Manx buying public.’

He said purchases were being made across all makes of car.

James Mylchreest, of family firm Mylchreests, said he was encouraged by the number of inquiries being made at the Millmount, Douglas, garage.

He said inquiries were across the range of vehicles the firm sells including Jaguar Land Rover, Vauxhall, Mitsubishi and Subaru.

Meanwhile people have been contacting the newspaper to point out that it appears there have been more English registered plate cars on the road. It has emerged that staff at the vehicle test centre are working hard and successfully to reduce a backlog in work registering UK plated vehicles to be Manx registered cars, caused by the Covid-19 crisis.

A spokesman for the Tromode based centre, which comes under the Department of Infrastructure, told Business News: ’The Vehicle Test Centre closed for several weeks during lockdown, and testing resumed around six weeks ago.

’The ability to book a test remained open throughout lockdown and, while the system was unable to provide a specific appointment during this time, those who submitted requests were first in the queue once the backlog was cleared. The waiting list is now three to four weeks.’