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The boss of one of Britain's biggest motor dealers today predicted that the recovery in the new car market will stall next year after the Government's “cash-for-bangers” scrappage scheme comes to an end.
Peter Jones, chief executive of Lookers, said that he expects new car sales in the UK to be “flat” next year as the end of the scheme offsets a boost from a recovery in the economy.
He said: “It's going to remain very challenging: sales will remain at the levels last seen in the 1990s.”
New motor sales fell 15% in Britain in the first nine months of this year, but Lookers said it is performing better than its peers.
Like-for-like sales of new cars at its franchises are only down 4%, helped by the scrappage scheme and a recent pick-up in corporate sales. Jones added: “We are getting a bigger slice of a smaller cake.”
Lookers, where after care such as servicing and repairs makes up around 60% of sales, said that trading from July to September was significantly ahead of last year.
After-sales revenues have risen 3% in a shrinking market.
Reader views (1)
Doesent "stall" also mean "Stop", he perhaps meant to say "hesitate" but "cease" would be better.Certainly a crash is on the cards. The reason is that cars are too dear, ok 60% of new car sales are fleet customers but most of these cars go out on lease to underfunded companies who cant afford to buy them in the first place, consider this, when a lot of these high street stores who rent premises, like Blacks in todays article, have a problem and and if they were to close down how many leased cars are released on to the second hand car market and are not replaced. Sorry to be a doom-monger but many of the large dealerships have grown to big on the assumption that things will continue, well they wont, the reason is the pound is down by 30% and as car imports are probably the largest car sales percentage sold we are paying too much for them, anyway it wont be long before some of the 10 million cars the Chinese make are over here, and why not! car showrooms are a shop, and all our other shops from toys to equestrian tack are stuffed full of Chinese goods. And it sells.
- Motor Trader., A used car lot in the real world., 30/10/2009 13:46
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