Pre Close Trading Statement

Inchcape PLC
26 June 2006



26 June 2006

                      Inchcape pre-close trading statement

Inchcape plc, the international automotive retail group, enters a close period
on 1 July 2006 ahead of its interim results announcement for the six months
ending 30 June 2006, on 3 August 2006.

The trading performance of the Group, and of the businesses in each of our six
core markets, continues to be in line with expectations, as set out in the AGM
trading statement issued on 11 May 2006. The 2006 subsidiaries' headline tax
rate is likely to be c. 22.0%, around 3.5 percentage points lower than last
year's rate, mainly due to the favourable settlement of UK prior years' tax
computations.

The Group has successfully concluded the earnings enhancing share buy back
programme. Since 15 April 2005, a total of £65.0m has been returned to
shareholders through the purchase of 17,880,606 shares at an average price of
£3.64 per share.

We remain confident that we will deliver further growth and strong cash
generation in 2006, leveraging our broad geographic spread and our focus on
operational excellence.


Notes to editors

For further information, please contact:

Group Communications, Inchcape plc
020 7546 0022

Hogarth Partnership Limited (John Olsen/Barnaby Fry)
020 7357 9477

Inchcape is a scale automotive retail group operating in Australia, Belgium,
Greece, Hong Kong, Singapore and the UK. The Group also has operations in a
number of other global markets. In addition to growing our core businesses, we
are looking to develop scale operations in new and emerging regions. We
represent leading automotive brands and operate either a retail, or a vertically
integrated retail model (i.e. exclusive distribution and retail), depending on
the market. Our current key manufacturer partners are Toyota/Lexus, Subaru, BMW,
the Premier Automotive Group of Ford, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen.

For further information, visit us at www.inchcape.com



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