What proportion of new cars are sold for cash, vs finance?

[Kozy]

Are there figures available for this?

Interested to know the breakdown of new purchases for various price bands of new cars. I would expect the proportion of new cars purchased outright to be high in higher priced cars, and the majority of cheap cars to be sold on finance?

Sorry if this has been covered before...

[ZOLLAR]

Kozy said:

Are there figures available for this?

Interested to know the breakdown of new purchases for various price bands of new cars. I would expect the proportion of new cars purchased outright to be high in higher priced cars, and the majority of cheap cars to be sold on finance?

Sorry if this has been covered before...

I'd say the other way, but I have no idea of the actual figures.

[Snowboy]

Dealers might know what finance they sold, but it won't count bank loans.

[Benny Saltstein]

According to the FLA, 60% of new private registrations were dealer financed in some way. As stated, this doesn't account for people arranging their finance privately.

http://www.fla.org.uk/motor

[rehab71]

I can give you anecdotal figures. 85% of our business was done on finance last year. However these figures are somewhat misleading as many cash customer take finance if there is an incentive to do so and settle it later, however I reckon circa 75% are sold on finance here.

It does vary quite a lot between different brands though.

[nicanary]

Benny Saltstein said:

According to the FLA, 60% of new private registrations were dealer financed in some way. As stated, this doesn't account for people arranging their finance privately.

http://www.fla.org.uk/motor

According to the ST In-Gear mag a couple of weeks ago, about 60% of sales are through PCP deals, which gobsmacked me. I've always considered it a last- resort sort of thing. So many of those new cars out there are "rented". Just to have a new car????

[nickbee]

According to their annual report, 41.1% of BMWs sold in 2011 were financed, 21.1% of those being lease agreements. I haven't yet found another annual report quite as explicit. That total figure is down from 49% in 2009.

At this point I'd like to predict that the OP's question will never be answered, but that there will be thirteen pages of people arguing over whether finance users are stupid or not.

[LouD86]

I think it all depends on the deals. We have plenty of people who purchased cars last year using the PCP. People who would normally pay cash, purely on the benefit that its 0%, their cash may make money elsewhere, and they get a minimum idea of its worth at the end of 3 years. Some people love that!