vehicle sales fall by a 1/4 in April

goochy

Sales across all vehicle sectors have fallen by about a 1/4 in April which means figures way down so far this year , quite significant.
Could it really just be imports causing it ? As I have said before I see a lot of Irish dealers no longer selling imports for some reason.
Could it be poor trade in values putting people off ? is it getting harder to get finance or is it uncertainty over brexit ?

Maybe the rising rents and house prices are putting some people off.

Stallingrad

My guess is the new Reg in January sucked up most of the confident buyers with money to spend or PCP to embrace? With them gone and plenty of economic uncertainty ahead who else is buying new?

goochy

maybe theres less pre- reg cars around too

carsfan2

goochy wrote: »

maybe theres less pre- reg cars around too

I am of the opposite opinion.
I reckon there was more pre regging going on this year before the end of march than ever and the first quarter sales are very artificial. I have a feeling sales figures are worse than the industry admits.
Whether it's imports or lack of consumer confidence I don't know.
I know a couple of people contemplating purchasing and unlike the usual practice of never hearing back from a dealer they are being bombarded with follow up calls. This wouldn't happen if cars were flying out the door. I think things will get worse too in the near future.
A lot of people still have not had any great improvements in their living standards since the crash.
Even though some sectors are going great in the economy lots of people still can't afford to change cars.

grogi

goochy wrote: »

Sales across all vehicle sectors have fallen by about a 1/4 in April which means figures way down so far this year , quite significant.
Could it really just be imports causing it ? As I have said before I see a lot of Irish dealers no longer selling imports for some reason.
Could it be poor trade in values putting people off ? is it getting harder to get finance or is it uncertainty over brexit ?

Maybe the rising rents and house prices are putting some people off.

Sales in 2017 (blue) have been so far smaller than 2016 (red) in every month so far.



From the top 5, Toyota, VW and Hyundai are selling around 17% less than last year, Ford 13% less and Nissan 7%.

Used imports are much stronger in 2017, and actually (after revisiting the charts) the increase is enough to explain the loss in new sales.

bazz26

Would be interesting to see statistics for actual real sales that didn't include pre registrations in order to gain or retain market share. I'd say it would paint a more realistic but grimmer picture for the motor trade here.

And I'd say the reason most main dealers are not importing used cars from the UK these days is because they are more focused on selling those people new cars through more affordable PCP deals that previously would not have been an option.

grogi

bazz26 wrote: »

Would be interesting to see statistics for actual real sales that didn't include pre registrations in order to gain or retain market share. I'd say it would paint a more realistic but grimmer picture for the motor trade here.

But those pre-registrations don't disappear. They are just sold later during the year.

bazz26

Not the same though, they can potentially be sitting unsold on forecourts for weeks or longer. For example, a dealer could go out and pre register 5000 cars in Q1 giving the brand a healthy market share and bragging rights for Q1 but in reality it might take them the rest of the year to sell those cars off. It's a fudging/masking of figures in an attempt to influence the market at certain pivotal times of the quarter/year rather than a give a true reflection of how new sales are performing.

R.O.R

From talking to a lot of dealers at the end of March, I don't think there's as much pre-regging going on as there has been in previous years.

If the dealer was under 10 units from Q1 target, they were pre-regging, but any more than that and they were just leaving it - no one wants too many cars sitting on the forecourt tying up capital. Manufacturers have also moved targets down by a good bit in most cases as the annual forecast has been pegged back a chunk, and dealers now have more realistic targets to aim for.

I think Brexit and the uncertainty as to whats going to happen is having a knock on effect on consumer confidence, and car sales is one of the first things to suffer when that happens.

goochy

passed local Merc. dealer today , aside from there being a few pre reg. 171 cars - not much sign of new cars- virtually none . New E class coupe looks stunning.

marketty

I think we should split the year into quarters for registration purposes to even out the sales, 171,172,173,174... ;-)

polan

Because you can't have an unlimited number of people who upgrade their 15 year old cars.

People will not buy new cars every year, SIMI.

They can't afford it.

Period.

Also, I'd much rather pay €15,950 for a 2013 Skoda Octavia L&K than get a brand new boggo spec 2017 Rapid, just for the sake of the reg.

marketty

polan wrote:

Because you can't have an unlimited number of people who upgrade their 15 year old cars.

Unfortunately the insurance cartel and the government have decided that 15+ year old cars should be outlawed, so we may not have a choice soon. Which SIMI are delighted with I'm sure

cml387

The Irish experience seems to run counter to evidence from my industry, where it's getting difficult to impossible to order electronic components because the auto industry is sucking up all the stock.

jca

polan wrote: »

Because you can't have an unlimited number of people who upgrade their 15 year old cars.

People will not buy new cars every year, SIMI.

They can't afford it.

Period.

Also, I'd much rather pay €15,950 for a 2013 Skoda Octavia L&K than get a brand new boggo spec 2017 Rapid, just for the sake of the reg.

Where's the L&K for that price, they're a fantastic car. Better than the Rapid anyway they're manky.

Atlantic Dawn

marketty wrote: »

I think we should split the year into quarters for registration purposes to even out the sales, 171,172,173,174... ;-)

And if that don't work 12ths...171, 172...1712 :pac:

grogi

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

And if that don't work 12ths...171, 172...1712 :pac:

No no no... 17000-17365... We cannot stop midway.

Fiskar

carsfan2 wrote: »

I am of the opposite opinion.
I reckon there was more pre regging going on this year before the end of march than ever and the first quarter sales are very artificial. I have a feeling sales figures are worse than the industry admits.
Whether it's imports or lack of consumer confidence I don't know.
I know a couple of people contemplating purchasing and unlike the usual practice of never hearing back from a dealer they are being bombarded with follow up calls. This wouldn't happen if cars were flying out the door. I think things will get worse too in the near future.
A lot of people still have not had any great improvements in their living standards since the crash.
Even though some sectors are going great in the economy lots of people still can't afford to change cars.

Can relate to that, One large mark was very keen to get me in the door for end of April.