Patience is a virtue for the new car buyer

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Car buyers are becoming increasingly confused and frustrated by the unpredictability of the market and in some sectors waiting lists on new cars are reaching up to six months.

This is partly due to an easing down of car production globally during the last eighteen months, but also one would imagine the success of the scrappage scheme.

There are more and more cases of customers being forced, because of bewildering lead times, to buy nearly new or demonstrator cars but at a premium price which ensures the saving on new is minimal and in some cases completely non-existent.

One sales manager told us that he won’t even sell certain demos because he knows he won’t be able to replace them and as a consequence will have nothing similar to show future prospective buyers.

This leaves us in the strange position where if you want a brand new car you will have a long wait and you can’t have a demonstrator unless you’re prepared to pay new money for it.

However this concept is nothing new, we have seen it happen with certain more desirable models in the past.

For example when the Audi TT was first launched there was such excitement and demand generated that due to the long waiting lists customers, in some cases, were quite prepared to pay way over the list price for a nearly new example.

There have also been many other examples by cynical manufacturers of starving supply to put some heat under demand for exciting new models coming to market.

However, right now the pure mechanics of the market mean that with some brands getting exactly the new car you want may mean that you’ll either have to have patience or deep pockets and in some cases both.