This year least to say has been a tough year for motor dealers and wholesalers alike, with consumers being wary about spending money on things like new/used cars etc. However as much as it has been a tough year, the figures are showing steady growth in an upwards trend as the year has progressed, providing used car dealers a positive end to 2011 and now looking into 2012 the figures would indicate steady sales growth as the year progresses – having to only be but a positive sign.
So does this mean the wholesale car sales market is on the up? Well as there are no benchmark figures to test this against, all indicators would have to say – yes! With the cycle of the used car being driven by many factors – de-fleet volumes, new car purchases (sales up 1.8% in October from September) with trade-in’s, quality of end of lease vehicles as more companies hold on to their leased vehicles for longer durations therefore having higher kilometres when being re-marketed – all having an effect on the wholesale used car market. This means dealers may start to hold on to more stock rather than wholesaling or possibly the search for better used car stock will be become more important for dealers to get the edge over dealers holding on to the old age stock with higher kilometres?
At this stage only time will tell, but if there is a single thing to take from all this is that all the facts show steady growth for new car sales as shown below which typically will drive the used car market and therefore the wholesale market due to demand.
Statistics provided by the ABS October 2011