The recent truncated spell of winter weather has played havoc with traditional buying patterns. Just when the sun pops out from behind the clouds one step outside tells us it still cold and biting so buying a summery drop top is still not on the horizon.
Whilst normally the queue for buyers of 4wd drives would start to dwindle at this time of year, sales are still fairly brisk and for the right models prices are holding up.
It is still the smaller economical end to the market however where buyers are looking for value and this is borne out by a recent survey which shows we are buying significantly less petrol than 4 years ago while diesel sales are slightly up.
With the first 3 months firmly behind us many car dealers are reporting a strong quarter especially franchised dealers who have stormed their new car targets with, it has to be said, plenty of financial carrots dangled by the manufacturers to help them hit those target. It will be interesting to see how dealers liquidate the big volumes of cars they have had to pre-reg to achieve their numbers.
For the car buyer looking at a new car, and the stats tell us that those changes are now being carried out quicker than at any time before, dealers will be offering new cars with their own name in the v5 at hugely discounted rates to try and shift the stockpile.
We are reliably informed that as Europe is still massively under-performing European car makers are looking at the UK market to deliver a performance so it is likely that there won’t be many franchised car dealers ‘retailing’ their way to their targets this year and this will likely have a knock on effect to the late plate market.
The auctions that have seen some fantastic conversions and profitable CAP performances the trend has slowed since the Easter break and buyers looking to buy a car at their local hall could find vendors being far more flexible in what they will let their cars go for. This is because trade buyers have become far more selective in what they want to stock as the influx of March trade-ins and rental/leasing de-fleets all hit the market at the same time.
Many positive thinkers believe that hard work, innovative marketing and great customer service will again defy the odds and make it a profitable year.
I for one agree that, as in life, those prepared to work hard to achieve their goals will surely find their just rewards!
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