Consumer demand continues to slacken and prices are softening, but there are surprises about the performance of diesel in the trade, writes Rupert Pontin, Director of Insight at Cazana.
Just days after new car sales figures showed continuing weakness, the retail expert has looked at the situation of second hand cars.
July is an interesting month at the best of times with market conditions driven by a myriad of variables not least of which is the strength of consumer demand.
For 2019 there has been much discussion around the decline in used car performance and there is little doubt that this has been a reality although the level of decline is a moot point. There has also been a plethora of comments on the performance of dealer groups nationwide and the City and markets have watched carefully as the half-year financial results of the large dealer groups have been announced and it is interesting to note that despite the negative comments the outlook has not been all doom and gloom.
As a nation and specifically an industry, there is a tendency to seek to find the bad news in any situation whereas some of the larger dealer groups have posted a reasonable performance which is something the industry should do well to focus on.
In recent weeks the country has watched in stunned amazement at how the political leadership has changed in what some might describe as a unique way. However, the good news is that we appear to have a prime minister keen to deliver on the countries desire to leave the European Union in the timescale stated.
Whilst enquiry levels continue to be lower than desired tenacity and speed of response has still resulted in sales and interestingly despite continued comment on the collapse of used values by some market data providers used car pricing has not been in the freefall some might have you believe. Using realtime retail driven data gives clarity, consistency and reliability in data provision that has been lacking for some years now.