BMW AUC / Autotrader - far fewer cars than a month ago?
Discussion
Hi All
By next weekend I'll be in a position to buy a facelift 120d / 123d so have been watching Autotrader and the BMW AUC website for the past 3 months as a bit of preparatory research, and I've noticed that since just before Christmas a lot of the cars I was watching have suddenly "disappeared", in lots of cases having previously been for sale for weeks on end beforehand. Obviously the odd one will have sold, but unless someone has bought about 50% of the entire UK stock in bulk on pretty much the same day, that doesn't seem to explain it. If it was just Autotrader I could understand it as I assume a lot of the dealers dont bother advertising over the Christmas period, but the cars have also disappeared from the AUC / dealer websites which I can't understand so much. Anyone have any inside dealer knowledge, is there some kind of big stock rotation scheme going on at this time of year or something?
cheers
By next weekend I'll be in a position to buy a facelift 120d / 123d so have been watching Autotrader and the BMW AUC website for the past 3 months as a bit of preparatory research, and I've noticed that since just before Christmas a lot of the cars I was watching have suddenly "disappeared", in lots of cases having previously been for sale for weeks on end beforehand. Obviously the odd one will have sold, but unless someone has bought about 50% of the entire UK stock in bulk on pretty much the same day, that doesn't seem to explain it. If it was just Autotrader I could understand it as I assume a lot of the dealers dont bother advertising over the Christmas period, but the cars have also disappeared from the AUC / dealer websites which I can't understand so much. Anyone have any inside dealer knowledge, is there some kind of big stock rotation scheme going on at this time of year or something?
cheers
What model have you been looking for? Will be interesting to know if its just 1 series or across the board?
The only other thing I could think of is that I believe BMW dealers have targets to meet every 3 months, one being the end of December. I believe they also have a 3 month selling policy whereby if a car doesnt sell within 3 months it will be put through the auctions or perhaps put back into the "pool" somewhere, so maybe its a combination of this as well.
The only other thing I could think of is that I believe BMW dealers have targets to meet every 3 months, one being the end of December. I believe they also have a 3 month selling policy whereby if a car doesnt sell within 3 months it will be put through the auctions or perhaps put back into the "pool" somewhere, so maybe its a combination of this as well.
Edited by LocoBlade on Sunday 4th January 11:41
Lack of stock.
Because new car sales are down, there are less part exchanges finding their way onto the market.
Because of falling values, used cars are looking very cheap now. Used cars are selling very well, but replacing the stock is becoming harder and harder.
Autotrader website normally has over 400,000 cars for sale(420k last years peak) today there is 325,000.
I expext we might see prices holding up for a little while.
Because new car sales are down, there are less part exchanges finding their way onto the market.
Because of falling values, used cars are looking very cheap now. Used cars are selling very well, but replacing the stock is becoming harder and harder.
Autotrader website normally has over 400,000 cars for sale(420k last years peak) today there is 325,000.
I expext we might see prices holding up for a little while.
The cars Ive been looking at are all a year old or newer and generally either ex demos or have come straight out of BMW corporate though, so I dont think the part ex situation applies here. Also it wasnt as if they dribbled away over a few weeks, they all literally disappeared within a couple of days, right before Christmas my Autotrader search showed I think 19 or 20 cars within the search criteria, all from Franchised dealers, then the same search mid week before new year showed 6.
One thing I will say is if you're using Autotrader, make sure the new year doesnt now mean it dismisses everything that it was finding late last year. For example I used to search for 1 year old cars which showed me everything I needed to see (07 and 08 cars), but now we're in 2009 that obviously only shows 08 cars.
Edited by LocoBlade on Sunday 4th January 22:17
Where did you hear that, sounds entirely plausible? Having registered my interest with a couple of local dealers who don't have exactly what I want, it will be interesting to see if they come up with cars from nowhere which could suggest something like this.
I wonder if BMW corporate employees will be keeping their cars a little longer now then, I work close to BMW finance and according to a friend of a friend who works there, all the employees on a car scheme (virtually all of them) get new cars every 3 months, presumably those then get sold into the dealer network as the nearly new cars we see on the forecourts.
I wonder if BMW corporate employees will be keeping their cars a little longer now then, I work close to BMW finance and according to a friend of a friend who works there, all the employees on a car scheme (virtually all of them) get new cars every 3 months, presumably those then get sold into the dealer network as the nearly new cars we see on the forecourts.
LocoBlade said:
Where did you hear that, sounds entirely plausible? Having registered my interest with a couple of local dealers who don't have exactly what I want, it will be interesting to see if they come up with cars from nowhere which could suggest something like this.
I wonder if BMW corporate employees will be keeping their cars a little longer now then, I work close to BMW finance and according to a friend of a friend who works there, all the employees on a car scheme (virtually all of them) get new cars every 3 months, presumably those then get sold into the dealer network as the nearly new cars we see on the forecourts.
I have heard this 'rumour' from 2 different sources.I wonder if BMW corporate employees will be keeping their cars a little longer now then, I work close to BMW finance and according to a friend of a friend who works there, all the employees on a car scheme (virtually all of them) get new cars every 3 months, presumably those then get sold into the dealer network as the nearly new cars we see on the forecourts.
The employee scheme is in the process of being cut back so I'm told, depending on the employee 'level' you are at you could have up to 4 cars, plus direct family can have access to the company car scheme too......These cars are normally run for 3/4 months with a maximum of 6000 miles, hence all the AUC cars with regs beginning with Y# 08/58 are ex BMW company cars.
bmw2002 said:
LocoBlade said:
Where did you hear that, sounds entirely plausible? Having registered my interest with a couple of local dealers who don't have exactly what I want, it will be interesting to see if they come up with cars from nowhere which could suggest something like this.
I wonder if BMW corporate employees will be keeping their cars a little longer now then, I work close to BMW finance and according to a friend of a friend who works there, all the employees on a car scheme (virtually all of them) get new cars every 3 months, presumably those then get sold into the dealer network as the nearly new cars we see on the forecourts.
I have heard this 'rumour' from 2 different sources.I wonder if BMW corporate employees will be keeping their cars a little longer now then, I work close to BMW finance and according to a friend of a friend who works there, all the employees on a car scheme (virtually all of them) get new cars every 3 months, presumably those then get sold into the dealer network as the nearly new cars we see on the forecourts.
The employee scheme is in the process of being cut back so I'm told, depending on the employee 'level' you are at you could have up to 4 cars, plus direct family can have access to the company car scheme too......These cars are normally run for 3/4 months with a maximum of 6000 miles, hence all the AUC cars with regs beginning with Y# 08/58 are ex BMW company cars.
Funny that, I too have noticed a severe lack of cars for sale on Autotrader over the last couple of weeks. Not been monitoring the BMW site quite as much so couldn't say for sure on that one.....been looking for 3 and 5 series M Sports with good spec. There are some reasonably priced late 07 and early 08 cars but you would like to think you could still bid into those prices given current conditions. A couple of cars that I have been looking at locally have not sold over the last 6 weeks and are still at the same dealer. They are good spec and if they are not selling then not much can be selling in that 1 to 3 year old range.....the 3 year old cars at 16-18k dont really represent good value when you can pick up a late 07 - 08 330d m sport for 22-23k.
I heard late 07 cars (320 - 330d m sport) can be had at auction for 17-19k depending on engine size.
I heard late 07 cars (320 - 330d m sport) can be had at auction for 17-19k depending on engine size.
nick_968 said:
Funny that, I too have noticed a severe lack of cars for sale on Autotrader over the last couple of weeks. Not been monitoring the BMW site quite as much so couldn't say for sure on that one.....been looking for 3 and 5 series M Sports with good spec. There are some reasonably priced late 07 and early 08 cars but you would like to think you could still bid into those prices given current conditions. A couple of cars that I have been looking at locally have not sold over the last 6 weeks and are still at the same dealer. They are good spec and if they are not selling then not much can be selling in that 1 to 3 year old range.....the 3 year old cars at 16-18k dont really represent good value when you can pick up a late 07 - 08 330d m sport for 22-23k.
I heard late 07 cars (320 - 330d m sport) can be had at auction for 17-19k depending on engine size.
I just enquired at a local bmw dealer about a new car on a lease and was offered just £16750 for my 335D M Sport Touring on an 07 plate. My car has got 45000 on the clock but has just had a recent service with new brake pads ( about £450 ) and 4 new tyres about 4500 miles ago ( about £600 ).I heard late 07 cars (320 - 330d m sport) can be had at auction for 17-19k depending on engine size.
His argument was that the car was worth £19000 to them but they had to budget not selling it or 3 months and currently a 335D are losing £750 a month .
I'd better add that my car is fully loaded , panoramic roof , Logic 7 , Comfort acces etc.....
I don't think i'm going to go ahead
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