Used Car Trends: July 2016

Each month Auto Trader looks at the fastest cars to sell on forecourts. Fast selling cars are good for dealers because they improve stock turn, which translates into increased turnover for the year and hopefully, with skill and experience, increased profitability.

This month the two fastest selling cars were very specific editions of the Citroen C4 Picasso and the Seat Altea. The Citroen C4 Picasso diesel automatic 2014 was the UK’s fastest selling used car in July, taking just 18 days to shift off dealer forecourts. Clearly there was demand for this particular model.

Why? First of all, it’s a good car, the motor magazines certainly like it. Auto Express, for example, gives it a five-star rating saying: “The C4 Picasso is a fine example of Citroen doing MPVs well. It’s one of the most spacious and economical mid-sized people carriers on the market and it’s also an interesting looking car with a futuristic interior.” And it is an award winner voted MPV of the Year’ in the UK Car of the Year Awards.

A detailed search of the Auto Trader website indicates another reason why it sold so fast: there was limited availability on this particular model. At the time of writing there were 146 C4 Picassos listed in total on Auto Trader but there were just 68 with automatic transmissions. Filter in fuel type and this number fell to 65 cars.

For someone looking for a 2014 car, this left just six cars with the required specification, ranging in price from an insurance category G model for £9,750 with 4,000 miles on the clock from a private seller to £12,000 for a car available from a franchised dealer, Wilmoths Crayford, for £12,000. In short, limited supply was one reason why this car sold fastest.

It is a similar story with the second fastest selling car, the diesel, automatic 2013 Seat Altea XL, another people carrier and one capable of seating up to seven people. It sold in just 21 days. Altogether there were 64 Altea XLs listed on the Auto Trader website, just 21 had the automatic transmission. For 2013 there was a choice of 12 diesel powered cars to choose from, ranging in price from £7,500 for a 33,000 mile model available at Cargiant to £8,500 for a same year 12,300 mile car, also from Cargiant.  In fact Cargiant had six of the models listed with the other cars sold by a mixture of independents and franchised dealers.

Analysis of the search patterns on the Auto Trader website shows which cars were most in demand in July. BMW are were hugely desirable in the used sector, accounting for three of the top 10 most searched cars in July. Ford also has a strong presence with the best-selling Fiesta and Focus featuring prominently.  And Mercedes-Benz did well with the C- and E-Class while Vauxhall, Audi and Volkswagen were represented in the top 10 listing with the Astra, A3 and Golf.

We can also look at ad views to gauge interest. Ad views are where the potential buyer clicks through to get more information on a car and here, once again, the BMW 3 Series, Volkswagen Golf and Mercedes-Benz C-class performed strongly followed by the Ford Focus and BMW 5 Series.

Dealers are increasingly being urged to use data to improve their stock turn and sell cars faster. The big dealer groups are forging ahead on this, growing their enquiries from their websites and using data tools to improve their performance.

Tools like i-Control, for example, can show what cars sell fastest in any given area. And just as importantly what cars don’t. To get the message across Auto Trader has been holding a series of free digital masterclasses to help dealers deliver a better service to consumers and also to show how to use data to improve their stock and pricing policies

“Progressive retailers are leading the way, using data to guide their business decisions, understand

the importance of sourcing desirable stock and pricing to the retail market, as well as how they dispose of overage extra space and stock as needed,” said Chris Penny, brand director at Auto Trader

Using tools can certainly help identify those cars that are best for a given region while also taking seasonality into account. Again, there is no substitute for skill, experience and sound judgement, there never is, but tools certainly help. Auto Trader claims those retailers using its i-Control data tool took an average time to sell of 28 days compared to a market average of 69 days.

“Data tools like i-Control also enable a dealership to price stock to the market and to reprice it to ensure it remains attractive to buyers to improve speed of sale. It helps deliver an efficient forecourt that cuts costs, boosts turnover and increases profit,” said Karolina Edwards-Smajda, retailer and consumer products director at Auto Trader.

Looking at the best selling cars in July this month, it can be seen that limited supply of in-demand models helped lead to quick sales. We can also see that using data tools to get a more detailed knowledge of the market dealers can improve stock turn. Digital tools, in the right hands, improve performance.