Will Coronavirus hit used car prices?

[Vroomer]

Deep Thought said:

gizlaroc said:

bobsavage789 said:

jjr1 said:

Any sign of this 540i touring offer at £390 down and £390 a month?

I spent literally some minutes today looking for this, but to no avail...

It went up on the bmw.co.uk website yesterday.

Obviously doesn't include the discount you negotiate with your dealer, but those discounts are there and pretty decent.

Have you a link to it?

Theres no 540i reference on there and the deals that are there are quite ordinary on the face of it.

https://offers.bmw.co.uk/finance-offers/#ProductFa...

Yes, please post a link. Deals showing are nowhere near as good.

BMW 5 Series 520d M Sport Touring
You will pay £483.43 a month and an initial deposit of £4,509.00.

BMW Contract Hire
Your personal finance quote is valid for 30 days or until the campaign ends (30/06/2020), whichever comes first.
To discuss any of the details of this quotation further please contact your local BMW Retailer.

47 monthly payments of £483.43
Term of agreement 48 months
Initial rental £4,509.00
Annual mileage 10,000 miles
Excess mileage 9.95p per mile
12/05/2020

Edited by Vroomer on Tuesday 12th May 10:32

[Vroomer]

Bank of England warns of sharpest recession on record
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52566030

To suggest this won't impact on car prices (new and used) or the volume of sales is delusory.

[Vroomer]

Has anyone tried to get a trade bid on a car?

[Vroomer]

Tried several cars on WBAC and got this very time:

Unfortunately, during our phased re-opening, we're temporarily delaying vehicle valuations and purchases for your type of vehicle as we carefully monitor market demand during these unprecedented times.

[Vroomer]

irish boy said:

Vroomer said:

Tried several cars on WBAC and got this very time:

Unfortunately, during our phased re-opening, we're temporarily delaying vehicle valuations and purchases for your type of vehicle as we carefully monitor market demand during these unprecedented times.

We buy some cars.

[Vroomer]

Kinky said:

Vroomer said:

Tried several cars on WBAC .....

I got a value on an Alfa on the 14th of March, for £7,795. Tonight, it's quoted me £5,595!

That's a 28% drop in two months...

[Vroomer]

Trailhead said:

We buy any car is open again.

Not properly. See my earlier post.

[Vroomer]

growlerowl said:

maz8062 said:

And there you have it. The trade will say nothing's changed, prices are holding up, there won't be a price adjustment - nothing to see here, etc. But the same will not be true for px's, trade prices or WBAC offers. In other words, some dealers want to increase their margins during a downturn.

Surely there's a Daily Mail story in this.

The trade can say whatever they like, but ultimately they reflect market prices, they do not control them.

[Vroomer]

Butter Face said:

I’ve paid OVER book for cars this week. I must be CRAZY.

Why on earth would you do that in the current circumstances?

[Vroomer]

Autotrader update today:

490k trade sales, a DECREASE of 20k on typical lockdown days
35k private sale, an INCREASE of 5k on typical lockdown days

Struggling to interpret that...

[Vroomer]

Auto810graphy said:

Sub £5k sensible stuff at CAP (£575 tax BMW X3’s etc unsold)

Please explain what you mean by a sub-£5k BMW X3 with £575 tax.

Thanks.

[Vroomer]

The spinner of plates said:

Vroomer said:

Auto810graphy said:

Sub £5k sensible stuff at CAP (£575 tax BMW X3’s etc unsold)

Please explain what you mean by a sub-£5k BMW X3 with £575 tax.

Thanks.

I think he means BMW X3’s at sub-£5k with £575 tax.

Ah, all I’ve done is typed the same words.

What further explanation could you possibly need? Genuine question.

I was puzzled because there was only a small number of petrol X3s ever sold 2006-2008 (and, to be picky, the tax is £555).

[Vroomer]

jammy-git said:

It's pent up demand, I think a lot of businesses will see an initial flurry of sales from customers who haven't been able to leave the house for a couple of months

After a few weeks I think we'll then see another drop off.

Yes, dead cat bounce.

[Vroomer]

Deep Thought said:

Vroomer said:

Yes, dead cat bounce.

Dead cat bounce suggests after the bounce it will continue on its decline from what is currently a very low point anyway.

Is that what you're saying?

Or where do you expect it to land percentage wise relative to pre-COVID volumes?

Pent up demand will result in a short-term flurry of interest. When folk wake up to the worldwide recession that is about to hit, things will be different, sadly.

[Vroomer]

jammy-git said:

Is there anyone that isn't aware of the recession that's about to hit?

As has been discussed at length, there are thousands of people on furlough who are actually redundant, but just don't know it yet. Very sad.

[Vroomer]

Not sure what WBAC are quoting on, but I'm still getting this:

Unfortunately, during our phased re-opening, we're temporarily delaying vehicle valuations and purchases for your type of vehicle as we carefully monitor market demand during these unprecedented times.

[Vroomer]

Scootersp said:

Is anyone tracking autotrader ad volumes private versus trade.(35,634 - 486,371)

I think that might give some early pointers (especially the private sales), numbers increasing a lot will indicate some attempts at selling off and/or reduced demand and potentially mean over the weeks that pass the most desperate might be forced to reduce the prices, at present with the support and dealers holding firm I can't see why anyone would go too low yet?

if they do end up dropping I'd argue it wouldn't be showing it's head much yet? A lot depends on the public's mood, while there are varying opinions on here, it would seem that not many are shifting their plans to take up buying a car it's seems more status quo/sitting on your hands at best? There could just be a real stagnation of transactions.

If people on mass just keep what they have, and perhaps decide to go semi shed after a pcp/lease ends etc then at some point main dealers or, independents or private people will 'crack' and you may get a sliding of prices.

Pick any car and there's a natural churn depending on a host of factors, if the time from advert to sale increases significantly it'll put pressure on a drop. I bet there are some makes and models (Bentley Continental topic) that have barely any buyers actively looking for them, we are used to selling are cars reasonably easily but some may really struggle to find a buyer at almost any price, or certainyl at any price much above the lowest 'not complete wreck'?

I don't think you've been following this thread carefully – I regularly post Autotrader updates.

[Vroomer]

Just got a price on one of my cars – 25% down on pre-Covid price!!!

[Vroomer]

We're not going to know where we are until furlough ends and people find out if they've got jobs or not.

[Vroomer]

There's a very old joke about antique dealers:

Two antiques dealers were marooned together on an island...

...business was brisk!


Does the same apply to car dealers?

Deep Thought said:

Watched some trade auctions ending today on the trade site i'm registered to. I didnt get to record the final price of enough cars to form any sort of trend, but some general observations of all 17 or so...

• Of those that didnt meet reserve last time only around 25% ended up relisted, so it looks like an accommodation was met on price for those cars.
• Of those cars that were relisted, CAP Clean was revised with the latest figures. These seemed to be around £400 down on the last set (so not thousands)
• There were several large 4x4s - all of these made well below CAP Clean and didnt sell.
• Bidding overall was stronger. For example, a Golf GTI that only made £12,800 last time (against book of £15,764) made £14,100 this time (against book of £15,255).
• Cars seemed to be making closer to CAP Clean than before.

Oh and a couple of cars made over CAP Clean - one was a 2015 730LD that made +£1400 over CAP Clean and had 38 bids.

Edited by Deep Thought on Monday 1st June 18:56