Tighter restrictions not impacting demand

Ahead of the second national lockdown from Thursday, research has suggested that existing coronavirus measures such as tiers have had only a limited impact on buyer intentions.

Auto Trader predicts that new car registrations in October will have increased approximately 20% year-on-year. Meanwhile, with a 27% increase in visitors from 19-25 October, the Auto Trader marketplace is still seeing exceptional levels of consumer demand.

In Wales, retailers are recording the same share of response performance as they did prior to the firebreak.

Meanwhile, the north west is showing particularly strong resilience despite Manchester and Liverpool being in the top tier. Retailers are taking a greater share of stock on Auto Trader than the same period last year (13.2% versus 12.4%).

Auto Trader’s director of insight and data, Richard Walker, said: “With cases of coronavirus spiking across the UK, and reports of a second wave hitting Europe, it’s hard to predict when further restrictions may be rolled out. However, the market is in a strong position; not only are we recording sustained high levels of consumer demand, but six months of consecutive price growth is resulting in good profit margins for retailers. Our research is also pointing to new pockets of opportunity, with a growing number of people considering owning a car today to be more important than it was before Covid-19.

“As a result, whilst localised restrictions may become commonplace over the coming months, as we’ve seen in Wales, the strength of the market means the impact on retailers should be contained to these short lock down periods. Outside of these periods, the consumer buying cycle is typically 3 months and so retailers are still able to benefit from their share of a market which is up significantly on the same period last year.”