Unprecedented increases in used car values are doing nothing to put motorists off, as the public’s appetite to splash out massively outstrips generally rising prices.
In May, the average price for a car paid by the online car supermarket buyacar.co.uk, to offer for sale, broke through the £17,000 barrier for the first time ever.
But, rather than being deterred from changing their cars, motorists are also choosing to spend still more by opting for even higher quality vehicles, as a never-before-seen car market recovery gets under way in Britain.
It means that the five most popular cars sold by buyacar.co.uk have changed dramatically since January and are now exclusively German brands.
This is despite a remarkable 15.8% increase in the price paid by buyacar for its most popular model – the Mercedes A-Class – over just four months.
In January, buyacar’s five most popular cars included the Ford Fiesta and the Vauxhall Corsa, but as motorists splash out on more desirable cars, these have been replaced by the Mercedes C-Class and CLA-Class.
Adding up the average price buyacar paid to offer its most popular five models in January results in a total of £60,324 – ranging from £6,120 for a typical Vauxhall Corsa to £16,939 for a typical Mercedes GLA-Class.
By the fourth week in May, the total average price for buyacar’s basket of five best sellers reached £86,081 – a 40% increase in spending by motorists.
Buyacar analysts say they have never seen a market in which underlying general price increases are dwarfed by an even greater desire among motorists to splash out.
While the past two years have seen a steady trend on buyacar.co.uk toward choosing larger, better equipped cars from more desirable brands, the ending of coronavirus restrictions on car showrooms seems to have whipped up a storm of demand online as well as in physical dealerships.
Christofer Lloyd, Editor of buyacar.co.uk, said: “The ups and downs of the used car market over the past 15 months are unprecedented and although we did forecast a substantial flood of buying activity when restrictions were eased, these figures are remarkable.
“Under normal market circumstances, rising prices tend to make buyers cautious, but what we are seeing is a desire to spend substantially more on better cars, to the tune of 40% more in the case of our five most popular sellers.
“The only non-premium model in our top five sellers is the Volkswagen Golf and even there the average price we are paying to supply one has risen since January by £932, or 6.7%. But behind these consumer-driven headline price increases, there is still a very strong market for smaller ‘bread and butter’ cars, with higher mileages, sought by younger people.
“With used car supply unlikely to increase for some time, we foresee demand remaining strong. This means that for consumers who are undecided about whether to change their car now, or wait until prices settle down again, today may well be the best moment to buy.”
*Article Source www.buyacar.co.uk
