Monthly News, October

Used Market Place Trade Talk

The September markets provided little in the way of change, at least for the first 2 weeks, with some quiet trading going on around the country. But by the 3rd week of the month, prices were beginning to rise on stock that is scarce.

In particular LCV stock remains in short supply; indeed according to the SMMT, new LCV registrations are down by 25% year on year, which will continue to contribute to the stock shortages.

The new Vauxhall Vivaro made an appearance this month and, judging by the look of this van, it will prove every bit as popular as the last version.

Vauxhall Vivaro

We continue to make very strong money indeed on Vivaro vans, of any type, in the markets especially if they have the very desirable high roof option.

Transit 280 model

And it is easy to see why; this example seen (in the background) above at South Western Vehicle Auctions during the month came all the way to Poole from Yorkshire, but made exceptionally strong money, justifying the expense of bringing it down. It simply stands out as much better value for money against the older Transit 280 model, seen in the line-up.

Ford have been hitting back with the new Transit Custom seen below, a few examples of which have turned up at auction this month, Without exception they have all sold for way in excess of their Book values, so far.

New Transit Custom

The new vehicle pricing models adopted by Manufacturers and Dealers is again starting to hit levels of activity on the used markets this month. With dealers very keen to push the 64 plated cars and vans into the market, new finance deals have meant that prices of 6 – 12 month old used stock have faltered, and quite massively in some cases. The finance deals are so good that the customer is left with no doubt that the new vehicle is the best option. This happened to my builder recently, who was after a nearly new Vivaro sized van. He ended up with a new van because; the finance deal at 0% was too good to miss, especially as they threw in 3 years free maintenance too! Why bother with used?

This unfortunately also filters down the price chain too, and will eventually suppress 2-3 year old stock.

Fleet salesSales in the first part of the month for our stock were generally very good indeed, but the south coast auctions at Poole and Shoreham (right) again had the edge. They seem to work really hard at getting buyers to the market, which reaps dividend as the increased competition improves prices.

Cars Direct continue to provide a good on line platform for our client stock, managing to convert batches of vehicles at a time to major on line buyers. Again, this massively helps where we have a quantity of similar vehicles to sell, as these sites can ‘hide’ the volume very well indeed.

Word in the industry has suggested that the major leasing companies will be releasing more car and LCV stock into the markets by late October, which could start to affect prices in the last few weeks of the year. Certainly in the car market this will have an effect as; there remains a healthy supply of stock even today, so any increase on that might adversely affect prices. LCV prices should remain firm through to the year-end however.