Saloons take the back seat
New findings have demonstrates a move away from saloons in favour of alternative body styles, but has this change in demand filtered down to residual values?
Historically, the saloon was the bread and butter of the motor industry throughout the last century, however by the beginning of the 1980’s, the hatchback was in the ascendancy. As we moved towards the 2000’s, many other body types were on offer with an abundance of convertibles, SUVs & more recently crossovers gaining traction.
Data provided by the SMMT about the saloon market share, highlights the continual decline of saloons throughout the new century, though there has been a steady six per cent or so for the last 3 or 4 years, aided by the popularity of some of the premium German brands. In raw numbers, it’s a drop from 323,000 in 1999 to 181,000 registered in 2016.
Another interesting pattern is the shift in who supplies those cars between 1999 and 2016. The shift towards the prestige German marques became more apparent, as these brands became the aspiration of the company car driver. This was at the expense of more mainstream manufacturers, which prompted many to move away from saloons in favour of other body styles.
It has been reported by Glass’s, that saloon values have consistently underperformed when compared to the whole market, despite becoming scarcer in the market place. This appears to indicate that outside of the company car sphere, the general public are still out of love with the saloon.
