As predicted car dealers are buying up prestige cabriolets

Industry guide Glass’s is reporting that many dealers have already begun to buy in prestige-brand cabriolets, in readiness to satisfy retail demand once warmer weather arrives in spring. In previous years such buying has typically started in late February, but soft tops were being snapped up as early as mid-January this year when the country was gripped by the snowy weather.

Richard Crosthwaite, Prestige Car Editor at Glass’s gave his take on the shift in trade buying patterns “One reason for the sudden impetus is that stock levels are lower now than in prior years, following a decline in the volumes of dealer demonstrators and manufacturer management cars available to retailers. These two sources of nearly-new cabriolets have dwindled recently, as falling residual values led to curbs in registration activity.”

In fact, values of prestige cabriolets are at their lowest point in a decade, after several years of over-supply. For instance, the value of the Audi A4 Cabriolet 1.8T S-Line CVT has fallen from 73 per cent for a one-year-old example in February 2007 to just 56 per cent this month for the same-age equivalent car. It’s a similar story for a one-year-old Porsche Boxster 2.7 manual, which has dropped from 78 per cent to 64 per cent over the period.

“Falls of this magnitude are unusual, and exceed the decline in values which occurs naturally during a product’s lifecycle,” notes Crosthwaite.

What’s more, some prestige-badge models are now worth less in convertible guise than their coupe siblings, despite starting off with a higher list price. The Audi TT Roadster costs almost £2,000 more than the fixed-roof Coupe when new, but a one-year-old Roadster is currently worth £250 less than the Coupe.

Looking ahead, Crosthwaite concludes, it’s a little early to gauge how the cabriolet market will fare in 2010 but, with prices and weather conditions set to improve, the segment has got off to a very buoyant start.”
This certainly makes sense to us. As we said in our article on January 15th (Buy your soft top in the winter, don’t sell it!) if someone’s buying the cab in January they’re going to give a lower price than they will in the summer.