Irish saving UK car market!

Stevie Dakota

Looks like we are keeping the UK car industry going...


"Prices Through The Roof at Auction Today
Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:28
The weak Pound is driving auction prices of used RHD exports steadily skywards. Especially of diesels for Ireland. So what we are seeing bears very little relationship to UK demand for used cars."

flanzer

Interesting!

Source?

Stevie Dakota

flanzer wrote: »

Source?

Honest John

Saab Ed

Stevie Dakota wrote: »

Honest John

I know him, he sold me a japo 10 year old camry diesel once with ONLY 34,000km on it...Good sort John

Padraig Mor

Like to keep an eye on UK prices and 520d manuals have shot up in price big time - so much so that it's probably cheaper (before VRT) to get a 525d auto.

McSpud

I can't think that Ireland could have such an impact given the size of the country?

I believe I have seen several imports in recent weeks though - maybe half as many 09 Reg. I have seen yellow reg cars with no insurance/tax discs on front window so I assume they are imports - waiting for VRT completion?

Stevie Dakota

I've certainly noticed a lot fewer 2008 520D's on the BMW.co.uk website than before. I'd say we are hoovering up a lot of them.

draycottgirlz

Irish BMW dealers are even buying over in the UK now.......

Drummerboy08

Pffft. So much for the recession. Fella's importing 5 series BMW's and the likes.

I've a feeling Mr Cowen and Co. will be putting a stop to importing cars very shortly. Especially if the SIMI keep crying the way they are.

mike65

I was listening to a business report on BBC radio about the car retail biz and dealers can't get hold of enough good low milage used cars.

http://www.collisionweek.com/cw/news/2009/0206-jan.asp

On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, Manheim Auctions UK reported similar signs of strengthening in January with a surge in both used car demand and prices. The company said used car prices rose by 5.8 percent, auction conversion rates ran close to 100 percent and online sales jumped 78 percent.

Manheim UK's Market Analysis for the first month of 2009 reports that demand and prices have soared beyond the level of any normal seasonal uplift, with record numbers of buyers in the wholesale market fighting over stock.

New all-time sales records were set in two of Manheim's locations. The extraordinary surge in wholesale demand has taken most of the market by surprise and Manheim is still urging caution as retail dealers settle down to the task of finding new customers for this stock.

Mike Pilkington, Managing Director of Manheim Auctions & Remarketing said, "Although there appears to be healthy consumer interest, it remains to be seen for just how long this will be sustained.

Examples of the increases in average wholesale used car selling prices in January compared with December include the Small Hatchback, Large Family and Soft-Roader (mini-SUV) segments in the Fleet sector, which rose by 10.6 percent (£373), 10.5 percent (£381) and 16.3 percent (£851) respectively. In the Dealer sector, the Compact Executive segment rose by 8.0 percent (£182), the MPV segment rose by 7.5 percent (£148) and the Off-Roader segment increased by 26.2 percent (£710).

AutoTrader.com also said it set records in January. Record site traffic was recorded in January with 15.25 million unique monthly visitors, the company's highest traffic numbers since May of 2008 and the highest ever recorded for a January.

ART6

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

Pffft. So much for the recession. Fella's importing 5 series BMW's and the likes.

I've a feeling Mr Cowen and Co. will be putting a stop to importing cars very shortly. Especially if the SIMI keep crying the way they are.

Yup. Trade sanctions. That'll fix em!

CharlieCroker

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

Pffft. So much for the recession. Fella's importing 5 series BMW's and the likes.

I've a feeling Mr Cowen and Co. will be putting a stop to importing cars very shortly. Especially if the SIMI keep crying the way they are.

The government dont care!!
They're getting extra revenue from the vrt as somebody is paying it on an import whereas they're not if they buy a car on irish plates (which already has the VRT payed)

robbie99

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

I've a feeling Mr Cowen and Co. will be putting a stop to importing cars very shortly. Especially if the SIMI keep crying the way they are.

What's this? Only a golden circle of SIMI dealers will be allowed to import cars? :rolleyes:

Importing cars is not rocket science. Anyone can do it. SIMI dealers need to cop on if they think the EU will allow trade restrictions within the EU.

McSpud

robbie99 wrote: »

Importing cars is not rocket science. Anyone can do it. SIMI dealers need to cop on if they think the EU will allow trade restrictions within the EU.

Unfortunately the calculation of OMSP seems to be a secret so they could be easily "adjusted". Given the manner of the system importers would have to bring the car in, pay VRT & then appeal against the OMSP. Even if appeals are by & large successful it would definitely put off a number of people.

Looking at some cars I find because we love small engines in this country once you go up even 200cc in engine size there is feck all choice which makes imports more attractive.

Tipsy Mac

McSpud wrote: »

Looking at some cars I find because we love small engines in this country once you go up even 200cc in engine size there is feck all choice which makes imports more attractive.

That's really down to penal taxation throughout the years rather than any personal choice, there's a gradual flow of larger low CO2 engined cars coming through since 2008 but it will take a long long time for these to get mainstream given the low new car sales.

lifer_sean

Was in England yesterday trying to buy cars to resell. Waste of time - came home early - had planned to stay today also. Prices absolutely crazy - higher than last Aug/Sept, and the cars are effectively a year older now.

Some examples:
03 Mini Cooper 43k miles was 250 more than I bought identical car last September.
05 Focus diesel was 33% higher than I paid for one on 9th January this year.

Certainly there are a large number of Irish buyers in UK, possibly driving up the price of specific models such as the 08 BMW diesels. However prices are up across the board so there is increased "native" demand also. Cars not suitable for the Irish market were also up in price.

Better value in Ireland at the moment if you shop around. Bought an Irish car this morning for over 1000 euro less than I could buy the same car in UK (thanks to the man in Wicklow if you are reading !!!!).

ardmacha

if there was a VRT refund of some sort and cars could be exported to the UK, imagine the effect here on the second hard market if Sterling strengthened suddenly and the English carried off all of the used motors.

lifer_sean

ardmacha wrote: »

if there was a VRT refund of some sort and cars could be exported to the UK, imagine the effect here on the second hard market if Sterling strengthened suddenly and the English carried off all of the used motors.

VRT refund ... now that would be interesting !

Your scenario would certainly affect the Irish car market, but that's because the much larger market (UK) could easily distort the smaller market (ours). In general terms the Irish market is so much smaller than UK market it couldn't change it by that much. 70k or so imports per year into a market of 1.5million new units per year ?

I havn't the exact statistics but January import numbers were in line with last year I think. Rate of imports hasn't suddenly shot up to that extent. So if it was just the Irish buyers skewing the UK market, why didn't we see the effect last year ?

I do agree that in particular cases (08 BMW diesels) the volumes being imported may be enough to skew that particular market.