After a good March it’s now getting tough again

Car dealers are growing increasingly concerned about the age profile of their used cars.

The fact that 3 year old plus retail worthy cars are in such short supply, values at a premium and the manufacturers offering such fantastic offers on new cars, is having a marked effect on sales of used cars.

With less used cars in the system this only becomes a problem if there is high demand if not there are enough cars around and therefore supply is not a problem. As we have touched on before, the likely winners in a market such as this will be the non-franchised dealers who have the experience and expertise of dealing in this market. They leave the late plate low mileage volume cars to the franchised dealers which is where their expertise lies and the on-going challenge of trying to spread the risk with their inventories is more apparent with such attractive new car offers.

Of course the big winners are the customers, as if they buy new there are great finance offers and big discounts and if they are cash byers there are great savings to be made on nearly new as dealers are under pressure to turn stock.

Showroom footfall has been at its lowest for perhaps the whole year in the last two weeks, partly from the hangover of a busy end of March and partly the bank holidays.

Although this situation will likely improve dealers are under pressure to move ageing stock on in anticipation of the quieter months ahead.

Many have made predictions on how the market is likely to perform this year and the only thing most of us agree on is that it is likely to be unpredictable. As a result car dealers with the very best standards of presentation, pricing and customer care are likely to remain successful and the ones that aren’t could likely go the same way as Tesco cars.

Yes it will be tough out there.

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