Buoyant auctions pushing up prices

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As usual the auctions are jam packed with buyers pushing prices into no man’s land, even though popular opinion says that this is not due to any pent up retail demand. It is far more likely that trade buyers are looking to restock for the new year and retail customers are looking at the extra choice to see if they can “bag a bargain” at auction.

How long this situation will (or indeed can) continue is unclear but from the cross section of dealers we have spoken to their sales events have not necessarily had the impact of the last couple of Januarys and it should come as no surprise that many are predicting a tough year. This is especially true for new cars, where registrations are predicted to be significantly down in January.

We expect that very shortly there will be some very attractive new car incentives on top of what’s already being offered to the dealer network in order to combat the rise in VAT and retail prices on new cars.

Watch this space.