Thursday, September 29, 2011

Used Car Market Could Experience November Storm

The Managing Editor of Glass’s, Adrian Rushmore, recently gave his opinions on what the car market could look like in the months to come.

He said “To some extent history is always repeated in the final quarter because there are the same elements in the mix.”

He added that September usually accounted for up to 17% of car sales for the year, with a surge of fleet purchases and part-exchanges.

Soon after that the season decline steps in, with used car sales in November and December usually being particularly low.

In the current economic climate, however, the market does not always follow established patterns and the trade is holding its collective breath to see exactly how bad the downturn in the fourth quarter would be.

According to most dealers September has been a very challenging month – more so than in 2010.

The slump in new car sales seems to have continued in September.  According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders sales for the year up to the end of August showed a decline of 16.3% compared to that of the previous year.  Car Finance deals showed a similar decline.

The drop in sales of new cars will of course have a knock-on effect on the availability of used cars.  With fewer people trading in their old cars the supply of used cars could well drop substantially over the next few months.

By November we might, therefore, see a bottleneck in supply, causing at least a temporary rise in the price of used vehicles.

A car dealership at Neath Abbey in Wales has earned themselves a bad reputation with the advertising watchdog after misleading customers with an advertisement promising £1 cars.

Car finance customers who want to switch to a cheaper mode of transport will like this: Honda is not only busy with research to improve fuel economy and emission levels of their motor cars – the company’s research also stretches to motorcycles.

Source: http://www.creditplus.co.uk