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New car sales have hit the rocks for the 11th month running. This is not exactly news to (A) anyone who is working in the industry and (B) Anyone that’s been accosted on the showroom floor and offered a massive deal. The apparent good news is that the figures suggest that the slap, which the industry took this month, was in fact lesser than the previous 10 months slapping. Therefore this points to possible growth.
The figures (not just in the car trade) are being manipulated such that we are getting good and bad news concurrently from the same batch of numbers, with figures being down 5.2% of this, against 2.3% of that which equals a 7% gross ? Frankly you are getting more sense out of the gross output of goat cheese from Uzbekistan. The facts are we are deep in a recession, money may be cheaper to borrow but it is more difficult to get. The knock on of this is finance deals that would have gone through unnoticed two years ago are getting kicked back. This is what’s keeping fresh used car prices up.
Companies have seen their car spend tip the balance, and they are now chasing lower to run, lower to tax, easier to fuel low co2 cars as the major factors in their fleet purchasing decision process. This ultimately will be tomorrow’s expensive used car. The same effect is apparent with retail consumers struggling with fuel and running costs. The only real winner in new car sales has to be contract lease companies, and if you look at the top ten new car sold in May it is the usual perennials of the leasing industry Fords, Vauxhalls and Volkswagens . The Nissan quashqai made it into the top ten but again it is available with good finance options and appears to be holding its value with launch models only now dipping below 10K (this is from a man that once bought a murano!!). Thankfully I placed £200 with Betfred for a twelve month slide in new car sales at 25/1 last year so one more month and I’m quids in ! I didn’t really, but until all this cheap money in the pot starts to get spent and the government can offer consumers the assurance to drop into their savings, the figure will continue to slide for another while yet.
© 2011, MD. All rights reserved.
