New car sales down for April

I am so out of touch with things today, I can't remember what the slow months were, for vehicle registrations. I don't look at the prefix anymore, they seem to change that quickly now.
 
mikew said:
Isn't that a surprise ;)


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52508010
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You'd think Ian Plummer, as commercial director at online marketplace Auto Trader, would know something about cars and the industry.

"He added that there would be a chance "for the industry to accelerate the adoption of low emission vehicles" when restrictions lift.
"However, it'll be essential for manufacturers to push more electric vehicles into their UK networks along with greater financial incentives," such as scrappage schemes, he said."

Other than the lower emissions vehicles manufacturers already have on sale, it takes time to develop and test improvements on other vehicles and engines. A new engine can take 4-5 years, an upgrade just to improve emissions and maintain economy can take 2-3 years. I would be intrigued to know how he expects that can be accelerated. Car manufacturers are doing this all the time anyway.
Electric vehicles, again it takes time, it isn't just a case of putting in an electric motor and away you go, the cars need reengineering, they need to be tested and redeveloped, if anything an electric car needs to be designed and engineered from the ground up. Then there is the cost of the vehicles. Manufacturers make little to no profit from their electric cars, they are subsidised by the profits made by their sales of conventional cars.
Scrappage schemes? Car manufacturers were already running them in the UK, they finished at the end of March.
 
There will no doubt be some absolute bargains to had shortly, just a shame for those working in the car industry, the inevitable cuts will come.
 
Just wondering, before the current problems. How many new cars were made and imported into the UK, and how many were scrapped, exported or taken off the road? There must be a massive surplus of vehicles, but would that be in the thousands, or millions?
 
jonbeeza said:
Just wondering, before the current problems. How many new cars were made and imported into the UK, and how many were scrapped, exported or taken off the road? There must be a massive surplus of vehicles, but would that be in the thousands, or millions?
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It depends on the car manufacturers. The government scrappage scheme we had around 10yrs ago was to clear all those cars sitting in fields and on old airfields and to get manufacturing going again, it was more economical to do it that way than bailout the manufacturers which had been happening in America, plus it got alot of older cars off the road too. Some manufacturers didn't have thousands of cars sitting around though, they were building most of the cars people were buying through the scheme. Some of the manufacturers, guilty of stockpiling before, have fallen into the same trap and have been doing it again. Any stockpiles in the UK at the moment I would hope would be in the lower hundreds of thousands, if it was millions, they would be lucky to shift some cars this year, they could end up sitting there so long, they would likely be scrapped. The UK sales, as in most parts of the world, have been declining for over a year anyway. Some manufacturers such as Kia and Hyundai, stockpile cars anyway, they ship cars into the UK for sale, but if a customer wants a specific seat trim or fitted option, over the standard car, that work is carried out in the UK, then shipped to the dealerships. Very few of their cars sold in the UK are a factory order.
 
jonbeeza said:
I am so out of touch with things today, I can't remember what the slow months were, for vehicle registrations. I don't look at the prefix anymore, they seem to change that quickly now.
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Car registrations have been changing twice a year since 2001. New registration dates are 1st March and 1st September. Registrations are likely to slow as those dates approach so people can take advantage of the new registration.
 
nilagin said:
It depends on the car manufacturers. The government scrappage scheme we had around 10yrs ago was to clear all those cars sitting in fields and on old airfields and to get manufacturing going again, it was more economical to do it that way than bailout the manufacturers which had been happening in America, plus it got alot of older cars off the road too. Some manufacturers didn't have thousands of cars sitting around though, they were building most of the cars people were buying through the scheme. Some of the manufacturers, guilty of stockpiling before, have fallen into the same trap and have been doing it again. Any stockpiles in the UK at the moment I would hope would be in the lower hundreds of thousands, if it was millions, they would be lucky to shift some cars this year, they could end up sitting there so long, they would likely be scrapped. The UK sales, as in most parts of the world, have been declining for over a year anyway. Some manufacturers such as Kia and Hyundai, stockpile cars anyway, they ship cars into the UK for sale, but if a customer wants a specific seat trim or fitted option, over the standard car, that work is carried out in the UK, then shipped to the dealerships. Very few of their cars sold in the UK are a factory order.
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I meant as a whole, not just one brand. I do recall seeing a video clip of a mass of cars all parked up, this was a disused airfield someplace.
 
jonbeeza said:
I meant as a whole, not just one brand. I do recall seeing a video clip of a mass of cars all parked up, this was a disused airfield someplace.
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Those videos and photos crop up from time to time, unless they are close up and you can recognise the cars as current models, alot of this footage or photos are actually decades old.
 
I was mightily impressed with my Ford dealer, we had a small problem with the wife's Fiesta and they sorted it, so I will be looking at a Ford again come replacement time for my BM. Times like this customer service really does get remembered.
That's assuming Ford will still be in business of course, debt burden/share price isn't too rosey.
 
MatBin said:
I was mightily impressed with my Ford dealer, we had a small problem with the wife's Fiesta and they sorted it, so I will be looking at a Ford again come replacement time for my BM. Times like this customer service really does get remembered.
That's assuming Ford will still be in business of course, debt burden/share price isn't too rosey.
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Debt burden doesn't look to good because they borrowed $34billion as the virus started spreading and I think it is another $15billion they have borrowed since, all as a war chest to ride out the "storm", because no one knew how long the down time would last or at what cost. Ford saw the financial crash coming last time, they were streamlining their factories etc as a result and didn't have to take bailouts as a result unlike other manufacturers around the world. Ford have been predicting another crash for over a year and have been taking action in preparation. Obviously the virus isn't the economic crash they had been expecting, definitely not as serious, but it could be they will be in a better position again than some of their competitors.
 
Also has affected supply of used cars if no-one is P'exing their older cars.

I've been looking for a 3year old Golf mid-range with a certain spec (auto, nav and panoramic roof but pre-facelift and NOT red) and the availability has dwindled on Das Auto VW. Maybe once dealers reopen they might have stocks of old model Golfs they will be discounting very heavily.

Last major scrappage scheme 10 or so years ago resulted in a lot of roadworthy classics disappear, and Kia and Hyundai were the main beneficiaries.
 
welshwizard645 said:
Also has affected supply of used cars if no-one is P'exing their older cars.

I've been looking for a 3year old Golf mid-range with a certain spec (auto, nav and panoramic roof but pre-facelift and NOT red) and the availability has dwindled on Das Auto VW. Maybe once dealers reopen they might have stocks of old model Golfs they will be discounting very heavily.

Last major scrappage scheme 10 or so years ago resulted in a lot of roadworthy classics disappear, and Kia and Hyundai were the main beneficiaries.
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Kia and Hyundai may have benefited from shifting the cars that they have to stockpile in the UK, but I wouldn't call them a major beneficiary.
Their combined sales for 2009 was less than a third of the top selling manufacturer. In fact their combined sales was over 15k cars less than the too selling car and only beat the number two selling car by around 6k units. I doubt much would have changed in the first two months of 2010 before the scheme finished

With lockdown and dealerships being shut, I wonder if all these stockpiles of cars being parked up, is just mostly storage for sold cars that couldn't be delivered to the dealership compounds and showrooms.
 
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