Forecast: Growth for Used Cars in Q1 2019!

Good news for used car dealers as an insight report from Cox Automotive and Grant Thornton on the UK market has predicted a 2.5% growth in Britain’s used car sector for Q1 of next year, with around 2.08m vehicles finding buyers.  

The report also anticipated a slight Q4 fallback of – 0.5% for 2018, which was due to the reduction in supply of new cars caused by stocking problems as car manufacturers scrambled to meet WLTP regulations.  

Importance of Growing Used Cars and Aftersales Care 

“Car retailers across the U.K have shown great flexibility with many achieving success due to the strategic focus they placed on growing their used cars and aspects like aftersales operations.”  

“Dealers who achieved good sales for used cars this year will be in a great position to start 2019 strong, especially due to a predicted rise in used car sales for Q1,” said Cox Automotive’s customer insight and strategy director, Philip Nothard.  

Changing Consumer Buying Habits 

In relation to consumer buying habits, the insight report used both FLA Finance and Leasing Association figures to announce a near 50% rise in used PCP packages, which has increased by 23% over the past five years. The insight report also predicts these figures will rise to new car penetration levels of 80-90%, along with a surge in PCH (personal contract hire) and PCP (personal contract purchase) sales as more buyers are considering different alternatives to owning cars outright.  

Although new diesel sales have been sharply declining over the past few months, the report stated that wholesale demand for used diesels built after April 2017 has increased, with more people after SUV’s and lower medium models, which in Q1 of 2018 increased by 58.6% year on year.   

To find out about how Click Dealer can help your dealership make the rest of 2018 successful, get in touch via marketing@clickdealer.co.uk or 01782 454354. Alternatively, you can send us a message through our contact page.