Used-car sales hit record value

  09 November 2014

New figures from a key influential report indicate that used-car sales have hit a nine-year high, generating a record market value of £42.7bn.

Auto retailers took a more dominant share of the rising market to control almost a 58% share, while private-to-private sales declined to take 38% of the total.

These figures came in British Car Auction’s Used Car Market Report 2014, published on Friday. The market’s value growt by £4.6bn to reach its latest total also saw it out-perform the new car market by £6bn.

Cars aged five years or younger accounted for 2.75m sales, an increase of 6.5%, adding up to well over half the total number of pre-owned vehicles changing hands in a year. The average transaction price rose to £5764 for the whole market, with those sold by retailers rising to £7660, a jump of £668 over 2013. In contrast, the average value of a car sold privately fell by £431 to £2465.

Although new car sales helped the total number of cars on UK roads increase by 400,000, the average age of UK cars reached a 30-year record high of 7.7 years.

Three-quarters of cars now reach 12 years old before being scrapped, while over four out of 10 make it to 15 years old. However, record new-car sales will in time ease the current imbalance between demand for late-plate used cars and available stock.

The BCA’s report shows that two-thirds of buyers are most interested in price range, though two of five say ‘make’ governs their buying decision. Almost half of all buyers will look to buy from a franchised auto retailer (rather than privately) and almost all will want to part-exchange their current vehicle.

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