Will Coronavirus hit used car prices?
Discussion
Deep Thought said:
But that may be a relatively short term phenomenon for a lot of businesses and employees.
I suspect not. Staff want the flexibility of being at home with access to the office for a few days a week. Some jobs may never go back to the office at all. I can easily see office occupancy down by 30-50% in the long term, with people doing 2 or 3 days a week at home. Condi said:
Deep Thought said:
But that may be a relatively short term phenomenon for a lot of businesses and employees.
I suspect not. Staff want the flexibility of being at home with access to the office for a few days a week. Some jobs may never go back to the office at all. I can easily see office occupancy down by 30-50% in the long term, with people doing 2 or 3 days a week at home. They have some very swish offices in the south east
Virtually Everyone has been wfh including their 24/7 global contact centre/help desk which they thought needed to be in an office environment .. the pandemic has proved it doesn’t
The swanky Office is looking rather like a white elephant now and I’d be very surprised if it survives. The business could operate out of a building a fraction of the size
Condi said:
Deep Thought said:
But that may be a relatively short term phenomenon for a lot of businesses and employees.
I suspect not. Staff want the flexibility of being at home with access to the office for a few days a week. Some jobs may never go back to the office at all. I can easily see office occupancy down by 30-50% in the long term, with people doing 2 or 3 days a week at home. People may still see the requirement for something new and reliable for the commute, rather than probably getting away with something older or no requirement at all if they're WFH full time.
Earthdweller said:
My wife works for a multi national.
They have some very swish offices in the south east
Virtually Everyone has been wfh including their 24/7 global contact centre/help desk which they thought needed to be in an office environment .. the pandemic has proved it doesn’t
The swanky Office is looking rather like a white elephant now and I’d be very surprised if it survives. The business could operate out of a building a fraction of the size
Similar for me. The crowd i'm with currently have various big offices across London now sitting idle as everyone is WFH.They have some very swish offices in the south east
Virtually Everyone has been wfh including their 24/7 global contact centre/help desk which they thought needed to be in an office environment .. the pandemic has proved it doesn’t
The swanky Office is looking rather like a white elephant now and I’d be very surprised if it survives. The business could operate out of a building a fraction of the size
But once this is over, will they stick with that?
A few years back i did work for a large IT company in Woking. The office there facilitated something like 150 employees but they had maybe 1,000+ staff working out of it. There was very much the push that "dont come in to the office unless you NEED to".
If companies start to think like that - and the incentive to do so is they need very little office space by comparison - then great. I have a fear though that old habits will creep back in....
Throttlebody said:
Justin Case said:
If I were in the market for a new car then I would be very tempted by a new car on a PCP, because I would know exactly how much I would be in for every month, which I could balance against possible lost income. If I were looking for a used car then I would also play safe by picking something newish with a decent guarantee left. The last thing that I would be thinking of would be something like a five year old BMW, with an unknown likelihood of throwing a big bill, but anecdotally from this forum this is the type of car that is still selling easily. Why?
Because if you buy right, the chances of a big bill on an older motor are low. Buy a 10 year old Jap with a good reliability reputation and history and save big ££ compared to a PCP. Earthdweller said:
Condi said:
Deep Thought said:
But that may be a relatively short term phenomenon for a lot of businesses and employees.
I suspect not. Staff want the flexibility of being at home with access to the office for a few days a week. Some jobs may never go back to the office at all. I can easily see office occupancy down by 30-50% in the long term, with people doing 2 or 3 days a week at home. They have some very swish offices in the south east
Virtually Everyone has been wfh including their 24/7 global contact centre/help desk which they thought needed to be in an office environment .. the pandemic has proved it doesn’t
The swanky Office is looking rather like a white elephant now and I’d be very surprised if it survives. The business could operate out of a building a fraction of the size
I think we will be as well. It’s largely worked with everyone remote.
jammy-git said:
Throttlebody said:
Justin Case said:
If I were in the market for a new car then I would be very tempted by a new car on a PCP, because I would know exactly how much I would be in for every month, which I could balance against possible lost income. If I were looking for a used car then I would also play safe by picking something newish with a decent guarantee left. The last thing that I would be thinking of would be something like a five year old BMW, with an unknown likelihood of throwing a big bill, but anecdotally from this forum this is the type of car that is still selling easily. Why?
Because if you buy right, the chances of a big bill on an older motor are low. Buy a 10 year old Jap with a good reliability reputation and history and save big ££ compared to a PCP. jammy-git said:
Depending on which car you buy, there's not a massive amount of difference between a 4 year old car and a 14 year old car, especially if it's mainly used to go to the supermarket once a week.
Yup. Our 14 year old 330i is very capable of performing the very limited motoring duties we need at the moment (and quite pleasurable to drive too), rather than our 2019 M140i, particularly given we've a BMW specialist literally within walking distance if it needed any work doing.I would say many households are finding similar.
I'm not yet convinced it will stay that way for us though. Will have to see how that pans out.
Court_S said:
Earthdweller said:
Condi said:
Deep Thought said:
But that may be a relatively short term phenomenon for a lot of businesses and employees.
I suspect not. Staff want the flexibility of being at home with access to the office for a few days a week. Some jobs may never go back to the office at all. I can easily see office occupancy down by 30-50% in the long term, with people doing 2 or 3 days a week at home. They have some very swish offices in the south east
Virtually Everyone has been wfh including their 24/7 global contact centre/help desk which they thought needed to be in an office environment .. the pandemic has proved it doesn’t
The swanky Office is looking rather like a white elephant now and I’d be very surprised if it survives. The business could operate out of a building a fraction of the size
I think we will be as well. It’s largely worked with everyone remote.
Deep Thought said:
eliot said:
Deep Thought said:
You mean people aren't trapped in Perpetual Car Prisons? 
Quote of the weekIts a term bandied about by those wishing to stir the pot RE: car finance in the anti car finance threads. (We must be due one of those again, surely?)
Just interesting to see there is a view that people may be freely moving away from PCPing new cars even though some of the car finance nay sayers have argued that people are "trapped" in car finance cycles.
Buster73 said:
Court_S said:
Earthdweller said:
Condi said:
Deep Thought said:
But that may be a relatively short term phenomenon for a lot of businesses and employees.
I suspect not. Staff want the flexibility of being at home with access to the office for a few days a week. Some jobs may never go back to the office at all. I can easily see office occupancy down by 30-50% in the long term, with people doing 2 or 3 days a week at home. They have some very swish offices in the south east
Virtually Everyone has been wfh including their 24/7 global contact centre/help desk which they thought needed to be in an office environment .. the pandemic has proved it doesn’t
The swanky Office is looking rather like a white elephant now and I’d be very surprised if it survives. The business could operate out of a building a fraction of the size
I think we will be as well. It’s largely worked with everyone remote.
But the knock on effect to all the associated businesses will be huge. Mates wife has a sandwich shop in a town centre, just her and a couple of girls. It’s been a goldmine but now is not viable at all. No office workers, no students, shoppers etc
There’s council offices round the corner and a business park .. that are just deserted and the council staff apparantly won’t be coming back till next year
For her and thousands of little businesses, mostly sole traders it’s going to be the end
Pret and uppercrust etc shedding hundreds will make the news .. my mates wife’s little shop closing won’t .. but cumulatively it will be seismic
jammy-git said:
In all honesty, most second hand cars provide much better value for money motoring than buying new/PCP. For the last 4 years I've been running a 2006 Alfa GT. Personally I think it looked pretty good, not too dated. I haven't serviced it once and the only things that have needed to be fixed in that time were a wheel bearing (£120) and clutch slave (£250). Bought for £1500, now pretty much worthless as it is badly in need of some TLC, but the money I've lost each year in depreciation and costs is what a lot of people will spend in a month on depreciation or leasing.
Might be worth a cam belt change.For a wider perspective, the Germany SMMT equivalent - the German Automotive Industry Association (VDA) recently summarised current activity:
"The slump in the market is unprecedented in its scale and global scope,"
The problem is mostly the lack of global demand for new cars in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The VDA expects the global passenger car market to decline by 17% overall in 2020, with Europe worst hit at a predicted decline of 24%.
Stark figures.
"The slump in the market is unprecedented in its scale and global scope,"
The problem is mostly the lack of global demand for new cars in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The VDA expects the global passenger car market to decline by 17% overall in 2020, with Europe worst hit at a predicted decline of 24%.
Stark figures.
TA14 said:
jammy-git said:
In all honesty, most second hand cars provide much better value for money motoring than buying new/PCP. For the last 4 years I've been running a 2006 Alfa GT. Personally I think it looked pretty good, not too dated. I haven't serviced it once and the only things that have needed to be fixed in that time were a wheel bearing (£120) and clutch slave (£250). Bought for £1500, now pretty much worthless as it is badly in need of some TLC, but the money I've lost each year in depreciation and costs is what a lot of people will spend in a month on depreciation or leasing.
Might be worth a cam belt change.
Earthdweller said:
The commercial letting business is in for a bloodbath without doubt
But the knock on effect to all the associated businesses will be huge. Mates wife has a sandwich shop in a town centre, just her and a couple of girls. It’s been a goldmine but now is not viable at all. No office workers, no students, shoppers etc
There’s council offices round the corner and a business park .. that are just deserted and the council staff apparantly won’t be coming back till next year
For her and thousands of little businesses, mostly sole traders it’s going to be the end
Pret and uppercrust etc shedding hundreds will make the news .. my mates wife’s little shop closing won’t .. but cumulatively it will be seismic
Sorry to hear about your mate's wife, but we often forget that when we are talking about a service economy most companies are providing a service to other companies and organisations and when the big companies fail or change their method of working their is a fallout amongst their suppliers. I saw some figures recently showing that when a large factory closes, twice as many jobs are lost among suppliers. All this must ultimately have an effect on the car market, although it may be spread out over a period.But the knock on effect to all the associated businesses will be huge. Mates wife has a sandwich shop in a town centre, just her and a couple of girls. It’s been a goldmine but now is not viable at all. No office workers, no students, shoppers etc
There’s council offices round the corner and a business park .. that are just deserted and the council staff apparantly won’t be coming back till next year
For her and thousands of little businesses, mostly sole traders it’s going to be the end
Pret and uppercrust etc shedding hundreds will make the news .. my mates wife’s little shop closing won’t .. but cumulatively it will be seismic
Throttlebody said:
For a wider perspective, the Germany SMMT equivalent - the German Automotive Industry Association (VDA) recently summarised current activity:
"The slump in the market is unprecedented in its scale and global scope,"
The problem is mostly the lack of global demand for new cars in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The VDA expects the global passenger car market to decline by 17% overall in 2020, with Europe worst hit at a predicted decline of 24%.
Stark figures.
That's actually not as bad as I expected. Still brutal though"The slump in the market is unprecedented in its scale and global scope,"
The problem is mostly the lack of global demand for new cars in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The VDA expects the global passenger car market to decline by 17% overall in 2020, with Europe worst hit at a predicted decline of 24%.
Stark figures.
Throttlebody said:
For a wider perspective, the Germany SMMT equivalent - the German Automotive Industry Association (VDA) recently summarised current activity:
"The slump in the market is unprecedented in its scale and global scope,"
The problem is mostly the lack of global demand for new cars in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The VDA expects the global passenger car market to decline by 17% overall in 2020, with Europe worst hit at a predicted decline of 24%.
Stark figures.
Even if they are stark figures, why do you care so much?"The slump in the market is unprecedented in its scale and global scope,"
The problem is mostly the lack of global demand for new cars in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The VDA expects the global passenger car market to decline by 17% overall in 2020, with Europe worst hit at a predicted decline of 24%.
Stark figures.
You certainly dont seem to be coming from the angle of "think of all those poor car salesmen who may lose their jobs" - quite the reverse.
Its a pandemic - its unprecedented in its scale and global scope. Its hardly a surprise that new car sales are impacted in the middle of it.
The market will recover, car manufacturers, franchises and car dealers will adapt.
If the new car market crashes, used prices are likely to go UP. Granted it wont impact you much as you save up for your £1,000 Jag, but for those willing the new car market down, i'd very much say be careful what you wish for....
Edited by Deep Thought on Tuesday 7th July 08:58
Edited by Deep Thought on Tuesday 7th July 08:58
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