As seen recently in the Carzone Motoring Report, used cars are the dominant movers in the market with over 450,000 changing hands in the six months to June. Now the latest figures from vehicle history experts, Cartell.ie, show that September was a bumper month for used cars with 93,550 used vehicle transactions - the highest since the company started recording monthly transactions in 2009.
The spike in sales can be attributed to the recently introduced changes to the off-the-road tax regime that saw queues outside motor tax offices as owners rushed to get their affairs in order. The net effect of this regime change meant that owners had to declare vehicles off the road. To declare the vehicle off the road, ownership documentation had to be properly filed and this may have resulted in a late rush to declare ownership.
Overall, the used car market is set for 900,000 transactions in 2013, which should eclipse last year's total of 888,738. The figures Cartell use are slightly different from those used by Carzone in that the Cartell data takes trade-to-trade deals into account and are not just based on change of ownership transactions, but the figures are still impressive. Even more so when you consider that there has been limited numbers of new vehicles entering the market due to the drop off in new car sales in the past few years. This has had the effect of keeping values strong in the used market and encouraging the importation of vehicles from the UK.
"2013 has been another strong year in the used car market, which is helping to offset the fall in the new market," said Jeff Aherne, Director of Cartell. "There is every reason to suspect that 2014 will be another good year in the used market."
Anything else?
For those thinking of buying a used vehicle, there is no better time than the run up to Christmas. Dealers will discount vehicles rather than have the stock sit over Christmas where it is depreciating. And just like the rest of us, dealers need their cash at Christmas too.