Used cars not selling?
Discussion
Not so much June but July and August are the worst months hands down to sell a car imo. The weather is nice and Most people are spending money on expensive holidays and looking after there kids who are off school until September.
I’ve been browsing for another Focus ST225 and in the last month or so I’ve seen sellers literally dropping the prices a good £500-£800 on models valued around 5k. There’s been some excellent examples going for stupid money on private sales lately to the point they might aswell have just traded them in.
The private selling and buying market seems to be dying more and more each year. I normally change cars every 12-18 months and each year on Autotrader there is just less and less private sales every time I look to the point it’s getting near impossible to find a good private example anymore which is sad as I have always bought and sold privately to minimise depreciation when re selling.
I’ve been browsing for another Focus ST225 and in the last month or so I’ve seen sellers literally dropping the prices a good £500-£800 on models valued around 5k. There’s been some excellent examples going for stupid money on private sales lately to the point they might aswell have just traded them in.
The private selling and buying market seems to be dying more and more each year. I normally change cars every 12-18 months and each year on Autotrader there is just less and less private sales every time I look to the point it’s getting near impossible to find a good private example anymore which is sad as I have always bought and sold privately to minimise depreciation when re selling.
I have been taking an interest in an independent trader I cycle past on my way into town most sundays
About 20 cars
Apart from a mini diesel that they must be absolutely sick of the sight of as it has been there for at least 4 months now, the stock moves pretty quickly. There aren’t many that last a month
About 20 cars
Apart from a mini diesel that they must be absolutely sick of the sight of as it has been there for at least 4 months now, the stock moves pretty quickly. There aren’t many that last a month
Given the huge proliferation of lease/PCP deals available on new cars, you'd expect secondhand car values to be well below historical average (adjusted for inflation) but that doesn't appear to be the case as far as I can see.
I suppose it's the cheap n easy credit that is supporting the secondhand prices, with even the smallest of back street traders offering finance.
I suppose it's the cheap n easy credit that is supporting the secondhand prices, with even the smallest of back street traders offering finance.
PurpleMoonlight said:
buyerseller said:
PurpleMoonlight said:
I note that Autotrader has removed the list by selling price order option, it's now monthly finance cost order.
No it hasn’t. Do they read PH do you think?
Edited by Deep Thought on Sunday 12th August 08:57
buyerseller said:
PurpleMoonlight said:
I note that Autotrader has removed the list by selling price order option, it's now monthly finance cost order.
No it hasn’t. When i take it out it formats fine.
rallycross said:
Hearing the same thing from others, seeing a huge slow down in sales to almost zero since the start of this year. Price is (apparently) not the issue, edit price up and down (eg end of month offers) and there are almost no enquiries (not even the 2 am email loonies that never reply).
Sub £1k cars are selling (bangers).
Decent £5k to £10k cars no finance are not selling.
Even dealer PCP/lease sales have dropped off a cliff since Q1, friend of mine just left a VW main dealer having been one of their top retail sales guys for the past 36 months, can't hit his targets in 2018.
Even though this has gone down from 20 to 16 units per month (new and used) on a base salary of £12-£15k and £85 per new car sold (plus extra for things like gap, paint protect) etc he had to leave as could not afford to live paying £950 month rent plus all the normal stuff.
I
Price is always the reason it's not selling. If you put it up for a £1 it would sell, at some point higher it won't sell.Sub £1k cars are selling (bangers).
Decent £5k to £10k cars no finance are not selling.
Even dealer PCP/lease sales have dropped off a cliff since Q1, friend of mine just left a VW main dealer having been one of their top retail sales guys for the past 36 months, can't hit his targets in 2018.
Even though this has gone down from 20 to 16 units per month (new and used) on a base salary of £12-£15k and £85 per new car sold (plus extra for things like gap, paint protect) etc he had to leave as could not afford to live paying £950 month rent plus all the normal stuff.
I
As a few people have said, people don't want old cars. My father recently traded in his old megane convertible. It was low mileage one owner, fully serviced. He got a couple of hundred quid! WBAC offer £150 IIRC.
I know the OP wasn't just talking about the one specific example, and we don't know what it was up at, but as others have said it is an 'old' car - no matter what the mileage, you might only have a couple of years until you lose the rust battle with an MX5 of that age!
I think modern cars are fine until about 10 years, then you start to get an increasing number of problems and niggles.
That said, I do a fair bit of autotrader browsing and a lot of cars seem to be there for a while across the board!
I think modern cars are fine until about 10 years, then you start to get an increasing number of problems and niggles.
That said, I do a fair bit of autotrader browsing and a lot of cars seem to be there for a while across the board!
V6Alfisti said:
Most of these dealer prices are £2-3k above WBAC trade in values.
WBAC buy a car in for say £10k, car goes through BCA fetches £10250/10500 plus the buying fee, say £300. Once any prep is taken into account and all the usual dealer costs, warranty, VAT etc a dealer will need at least £2000 margin to even try to keep the doors open. Not too surprising really.rallycross said:
Sub £1k cars are selling (bangers).
Decent £5k to £10k cars no finance are not selling.
Even before i got out of it some years ago, thats what i was finding. At £5K+ customers will typically want finance. A motor trader friend of mine was selling some really fresh car - cant remember specifics - and was asking £5,500 for it. Cheapest on autotrader, no phone calls, no interest. He traded it on to a big dealership and they put it on at £6,495 but pitched it with a £149 deposit / £149 a month offer (cant remember exact figures) and they sold it within a week for £1,000 more than he'd been asking and they'd have got a kick back on the finance too.Decent £5k to £10k cars no finance are not selling.
Sub £1,000 cars - sell them from a disposable phone and meet the buyer at Tescos. Take a quick £100 or two. Lots of dole heads / "private traders" doing it.
£1,000 - £5,000 - hugely competitive, only the cheapest sell, people wont usually pay extra for mint low miles cars, sold based on price, high risk of comeback under warranty, etc, etc.
Every single brand new car my family, friends, and I have leased, has ended up on Autotrader with both the monthly payment and deposit higher than what we paid to lease it from new.
As others have said, I think used car prices have to come down (in the current market) for them to sell, as most people now prefer to pay £100-£200 a month for a brand new, fully taxed car, that offers simpler, fixed cost motoring.
Going to play devil’s advocate here; I’m an advocate for leasing, however, one must ask how long the cheap deals can last for if no one is buying the used cars after we give them back!
As others have said, I think used car prices have to come down (in the current market) for them to sell, as most people now prefer to pay £100-£200 a month for a brand new, fully taxed car, that offers simpler, fixed cost motoring.
Going to play devil’s advocate here; I’m an advocate for leasing, however, one must ask how long the cheap deals can last for if no one is buying the used cars after we give them back!
roadsmash said:
one must ask how long the cheap deals can last for if no one is buying the used cars after we give them back!
Manufacturers want to sell new cars, and are hugely competitive at it - they use finance contributions and subsidised interest rates to make PCP dealers appealing and can offer leasing companies big bulk discounts which make leasing deals competitive.I dont think they'll ever increase the deals just to appease used car sellers down the food chain (who they dont really care about)
I think the used car market is suffering heavily - its very hard to make a used car deal competitive in terms of monthly payments. Even a £6K loan over 3 years is nigh on £200 a month. People can lease a brand new car for that, rather than maybe an out of warranty five year old one.
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