Used car market buoyant at auction

The used car auction market is in a better place than it was this time last year, with figures rising in September in first time conversion rate, percentage of original cost new, and sales volume index.

The rapid post-lockdown recovery was partly driven by a need to re-stock sites and feed pent up retail demand. Virtually every car offered received multiple bids and anything desirable was selling for very strong money.

This slowed, and forecast editor at Glass’s, Robert Redman, said feedback from the market suggests that buyers are becoming a little more selective in what they buy. He said desirable retail stock is still selling well at auction, moving quickly and for good money, but the less desirable stock is starting to become harder work.

SUVs are still selling well, but alternatively fuelled cars are less popular at auction.

Meanwhile, the used retail market is also showing signs of stabilising, with the number of sales observations and the average sale price for September being very similar to those in August. The number of observations is still lower than for the same month last year, down just over 10%, but the average sale price is 5.8% higher, even though the average age of the cars sold was 47.5 months, almost 20% higher than the 39.8 months reported for September 2019.

Redman said: “We are heading into the final few months of the year which traditionally means a slowing down of the market, especially if we have proper winter weather. So, as we head into the final quarter of what has been an extraordinary year the only thing we can be certain of is that the used car markets – both wholesale and retail – are as unpredictable as they have been for most of this year.”