Well it’s finally here and after the goodwill created by the scrappage scheme there will be many happy customers driving away in their shiny new 59 registered cars this month. From the feedback we are getting around the country it does seem to be a rather muted start. The most cars going out on the first, we have heard so far, is 30, which may sound like a large amount but in the old days it wouldn’t be unusual to deliver double that amount. Many dealers are rightly worried the scrappage money will end soon and some are being quite creative in the way they are switching customers to other new or used cars if they don’t think they will be able to supply a new car on scrappage before the scheme ends. This of course means that if a customer expects £2,000 for their old faithful, a lot of hard work needs to be done to convince buyers of the benefits of an alternative.
The price guides within the trade have continued to rise across many models this month although the popular opinion appears to be that the latest one is a price rise to far, and the uplift to realise a profit is just not justifiable.
It would certainly be a good time to buy but when there is more stock available in the last quarter it is bound to have a downward effect on values as more choice hits the market and the flip side of that is customer part-exchange values could be affected too.
It is nice to see so many happy smiling faces in showrooms after so much doom this year, and although dealers aren’t breaking out the bubbly just yet there is certainly cause for a little more optimism.
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