Will Coronavirus hit used car prices?

[GroundEffect]

Throttlebody said:

German new car registrations in May down 50% on normal levels.

German car showrooms were open all of May post lockdown.

Define sales.

[Throttlebody]

jamoor said:

Throttlebody said:

Welshbeef said:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/07/boris-...


Govt looking at £6k scrappage scheme petrol & diesel to purchase EVs (maybe PHEVs).

Now please tell me what 7 seat EV option i have?



Also for those thinking cheap cars will keep selling given this it might mean far more clunkers are far more valuable and push up the dregs of the market.

EVs are low volume sellers, so not much of a help to boost the car industry.

I’m pretty sure that’s the point, to make them mainstream using a scrap scheme.

EVs won’t become mainstream through a Scrappage scheme. Too many compromises for too many buyers. UK passenger car sales for 2019 was 2,300,000 of which just 38,000 were EVs.

[jamoor]

Throttlebody said:

jamoor said:

Throttlebody said:

Welshbeef said:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/07/boris-...


Govt looking at £6k scrappage scheme petrol & diesel to purchase EVs (maybe PHEVs).

Now please tell me what 7 seat EV option i have?



Also for those thinking cheap cars will keep selling given this it might mean far more clunkers are far more valuable and push up the dregs of the market.

EVs are low volume sellers, so not much of a help to boost the car industry.

I’m pretty sure that’s the point, to make them mainstream using a scrap scheme.

EVs won’t become mainstream through a Scrappage scheme. Too many compromises for too many buyers. UK passenger car sales for 2019 was 2,300,000 of which just 38,000 were EVs.

If they are cheap enough or the compromises get worked out through mass adoption then they will become mainstream.

They just need to offer a better ownership proposition than the equivalent ICE car which a 200 miles 0 road tax 4p a mile % BIK model 3 does offer over a 3 series for some people.

[Algarve]

Court_S said:

Equally that may backfire a wee bit; chap on another forum is looking for an M140i, found one he liked the look of but was told in no uncertain terms that he could only drive it after he’d bought it. On a used car that seems a bit counter intuitive. He’s walked and is on the look out still.

No way would I buy a used car without driving / having a good look around it first.

I bet anyone who can tick both boxes of looking/appearing sensible, and able to prove they could afford that M140, could have got a test drive in it.

The blokes been flagged as a time waster.

[Thankyou4calling]

Absolutely.

If I want to test drive a car with a view to purchase then I’ll be allowed because I have the necessary presence.

[Earthdweller]

jamoor said:

Throttlebody said:

jamoor said:

Throttlebody said:

Welshbeef said:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/07/boris-...


Govt looking at £6k scrappage scheme petrol & diesel to purchase EVs (maybe PHEVs).

Now please tell me what 7 seat EV option i have?



Also for those thinking cheap cars will keep selling given this it might mean far more clunkers are far more valuable and push up the dregs of the market.

EVs are low volume sellers, so not much of a help to boost the car industry.

I’m pretty sure that’s the point, to make them mainstream using a scrap scheme.

EVs won’t become mainstream through a Scrappage scheme. Too many compromises for too many buyers. UK passenger car sales for 2019 was 2,300,000 of which just 38,000 were EVs.

If they are cheap enough or the compromises get worked out through mass adoption then they will become mainstream.

They just need to offer a better ownership proposition than the equivalent ICE car which a 200 miles 0 road tax 4p a mile % BIK model 3 does offer over a 3 series for some people.

In the last scrappage scheme weren’t most “bangers” traded in for things like Hyundai’s, Fiesta’s and the like

Can’t see many people running wrecks suddenly looking at Tesla’s or even electric Mini’s at £30k

I’d have thought EV’s are just too expensive

[anonymous-user]

Earthdweller said:

In the last scrappage scheme weren’t most “bangers” traded in for things like Hyundai’s, Fiesta’s and the like

Can’t see many people running wrecks suddenly looking at Tesla’s or even electric Mini’s at £30k

I’d have thought EV’s are just too expensive

It also takes perfectly useful cars out of the system, driving up used car prices. Not very green scrapping all these cars before their useful life is over.

[stevemcs]

Throttlebody said:

German new car registrations in May down 50% on normal levels.

German car showrooms were open all of May post lockdown.

they also had a far stricter lock down than we did so 50% doesn't sound bad to me.

[Anonymous-poster]

Thankyou4calling said:

Absolutely.

If I want to test drive a car with a view to purchase then I’ll be allowed because I have the necessary presence.

Can of Red Bull at the ready no doubt and a well groomed goatee!

[Saweep]

Bentley sent me an email today offering 25k off any stock Bentaygas. Seems like a starting point to me too.

Last year 10k was doable but required a push.

They must be hurting, despite what the dealers say.

[So]

Saweep said:

Bentley sent me an email today offering 25k off any stock Bentaygas. Seems like a starting point to me too.

Last year 10k was doable but required a push.

They must be hurting, despite what the dealers say.

Might explain the bid you got on yours.

[Pvapour]

So said:

Saweep said:

Bentley sent me an email today offering 25k off any stock Bentaygas. Seems like a starting point to me too.

Last year 10k was doable but required a push.

They must be hurting, despite what the dealers say.

Might explain the bid you got on yours.

Just Bentaygas?

[Saweep]

So said:

Might explain the bid you got on yours.

Indeed it does. bds

[Saweep]

Pvapour said:

So said:

Saweep said:

Bentley sent me an email today offering 25k off any stock Bentaygas. Seems like a starting point to me too.

Last year 10k was doable but required a push.

They must be hurting, despite what the dealers say.

Might explain the bid you got on yours.

Just Bentaygas?

My dealer intimated that there was 20k on new Contis too. Just not an official mail shot.

[So]

Saweep said:

Pvapour said:

So said:

Saweep said:

Bentley sent me an email today offering 25k off any stock Bentaygas. Seems like a starting point to me too.

Last year 10k was doable but required a push.

They must be hurting, despite what the dealers say.

Might explain the bid you got on yours.

Just Bentaygas?

My dealer intimated that there was 20k on new Contis too. Just not an official mail shot.

Interesting stuff. I thought that end of the market might be more buoyant.

But then, if they are bidding people in the balls for trade-ins perhaps people are just keeping hold of older cars.

[northwest monkey]

Interesting (if a little bit odd at times) thread.

To answer the original question "will CV hit used car prices?", in the short term possibly yes.

I think what will happen medium term (6-24 months) is that car sales (new and used) will fall by a lot. Once redundancies start to take place (and they already are), confidence will fall & once people start to know people who are now out of work then they start to look at their own employment. The initial flurry some dealers are experiencing will dry up & then sales volume will be nowhere near what it was 12 or 24 months ago. Although I don't think this will have a massive impact on prices, I do think it will have a massive impact on the survival of dealers. I personally think the used "niche" dealers will by & large be ok (there will always be a buyer for a classic somewhere), the main dealers that aren't part of a chain (there's a family owned Ford dealer local to me like this) should be ok but the big glass & stainless steel "supermarket" type dealers may well struggle. The overheads that some of these places have must be horrific & will be geared towards selling x number of vehicles. If they are selling half that much then they will be in trouble very quickly. Outside of PH, the majority of people buy a car like any other consumable good and will buy a car when they need to.

Long term (24 months+) will be interesting. The ripples from this current situation may well last for years.

A month ago, there was a huge clamour for garden centres to open back up - if you listened to the news, everyone in the UK wanted bedding plants. 2 weeks after opening back up, our local garden centre is on Facebook every day saying "come down now, we have no queues"...

[Vroomer]

northwest monkey said:

A month ago, there was a huge clamour for garden centres to open back up - if you listened to the news, everyone in the UK wanted bedding plants. 2 weeks after opening back up, our local garden centre is on Facebook every day saying "come down now, we have no queues"...

Same here.

[Deep Thought]

northwest monkey said:

A month ago, there was a huge clamour for garden centres to open back up - if you listened to the news, everyone in the UK wanted bedding plants. 2 weeks after opening back up, our local garden centre is on Facebook every day saying "come down now, we have no queues"...

I think thats a very good point and it will be interesting to see if that lasts in the used car sector a couple of weeks or a couple of months or longer.

At the moment i'm seeing less cars available for the specific model types i'm interested in - presumably as stock gets sold off, but no cars replacing them.

Once replacement cars filter through it will be interesting to see how long they sit.

[rovermorris999]

Vroomer said:

northwest monkey said:

A month ago, there was a huge clamour for garden centres to open back up - if you listened to the news, everyone in the UK wanted bedding plants. 2 weeks after opening back up, our local garden centre is on Facebook every day saying "come down now, we have no queues"...

Same here.

The government have succeeded in scaring some people to the extent they think they'll drop down dead if they step outside (a slight exaggeration but you get my drift). It'll take quite a while to get back to normal.

[Deep Thought]

rovermorris999 said:

The government have succeeded in scaring some people to the extent they think they'll drop down dead if they step outside (a slight exaggeration but you get my drift). It'll take quite a while to get back to normal.

Yes i read comment a few weeks ago about how the "Stay at home. Protect the NHS. Save Lives" message had perhaps been too successful as it was now engrained in peoples minds. Very hard to overturn that.

I go out twice a week to our local supermarket, and maybe once a fortnight to our local Boots to pick up prescriptions (and thats done at the same time as a local supermarket trip) and thats it. No plans to change that at all any time soon.