price of second hand cars

[genpk]

Not sure if the same thing is happening over your way, but due to the lack of new car stock available here in Australia the price of anything secondhand is going up and sold quickly and people paying silly money for stuff.

[bl52krz]

Not noticed that happening here yet. But who knows now we have left the EU with a ‘deal’.

[Azur]

Absolutely happening in Europe too, increase of demand to secondhand cars. Prices went up extremely here in Holland, but also in Germany France etc. Within 2 years the prices doubled of tripled sometimes, depending on the brand.

[Steamdrivenandy]

We're obviously in an odd situation at the moment.

Covid has meant that new vehicle sales have slumped, which you'd think would lead to a shortage of used stock coming through to the market, but I believe used sales have dropped too, so overall stock is about the same.

However cashflow is critical to dealerships who tend to use finance house stocking plans to buy in their cars. That means they're paying interest on anything on their forecourt, so the faster they can shift it the lower their interest bill and the bigger their net margin (profit).

So, with reduced turnover and a need to reduce finance costs there should be bargains around.

[roverbarmy]

We've had a long established local main dealership (VW) has closed one of its outlets completely and moved the staff to other locations. I've no doubt that dealers will want to shift "dead" stock as quickly as possible. Low interest rates or not, any overheads are dead money.


I would hate to be in business during the current period but those who do survive will do well when things return to normal (whatever the new normal will be!).


We survived the last economic crisis by closing down and liquidating assets (luckily we had some!). Others were not so fortunate and there were lots of bankruptcy sales and auctions.


It's the old supply and demand scenario.

[myfirstrover]

My daughter recently sold her 11 plate Mazda 2 , 66k , decent service history , nice enough car but nothing exceptional , the new buyer ( a trader) drove from Birmingham to Newcastle with a Transit van and trailer to collect it , he said he quite often had to travel oop North for stock !

[Canonite]

I always look for 25, 45, 75 and axed models, and I do think there has been a shift in prices being commanded for the better. There is no shortage of cars being bought so maybe people are finally seeing some value in them.
Still a fair old selection of rubbish out there though

[SCP440]

Some of the problem is have you seen the price of a new car? £25k does not get you anything special and not everybody wants or can afford a PCP deal on a new car. I know dealers who are desperate for good used stock, one used car dealer is even looking at cars older and with higher mileage than his usual stock he is so desperate.

Someone must be buying new cars, the Mini plant in Oxford is flat out trying to keep up with demand and they are not cheap. A customer has ordered a new Mercedes and wont be taking delivery until March or April next year and new vans are selling at list price due to the shortage of stock. My neighbour has a Transit on order and has been waiting for 9 months with no delivery date, the dealer had even offered to refund his deposit.

[vitesse]

Similar here in Sweden. My clever daughter sold her 2 year old S-Max to a dealer in Stockholm. Car unseen, he sent a driver up by train, daughter collected him at the station, quick OBD check and drove off. Got a premium price, and was glad of once again being able to leave oil changes etc to Dad. Clever? Yes, she bought a 75 Tourer at a 10th of the price she got for the Ford.

Regards

[Steamdrivenandy]

Originally Posted by SCP440

Some of the problem is have you seen the price of a new car? £25k does not get you anything special and not everybody wants or can afford a PCP deal on a new car. I know dealers who are desperate for good used stock, one used car dealer is even looking at cars older and with higher mileage than his usual stock he is so desperate.

Someone must be buying new cars, the Mini plant in Oxford is flat out trying to keep up with demand and they are not cheap. A customer has ordered a new Mercedes and wont be taking delivery until March or April next year and new vans are selling at list price due to the shortage of stock. My neighbour has a Transit on order and has been waiting for 9 months with no delivery date, the dealer had even offered to refund his deposit.

Ah but.....

What is flat out production in a car plant that has to take Covid precautions? Probably quite a bit less than when not fettered by restrictions.

There have been long periods when car showrooms have been closed and overall sales are much lower this year.

Dealers might be desperate for used vehicles because there are so few new sales and so little supply from factories. To keep cashflow going they need cars to sell and if the only source is the used market they will pay more to buy in. However if there are fewer punters buying used cars and those cars available have had their price increased due to higher stock cost then that source of sales will reduce too. It's a no win situation for the dealers.