8:49 am, April 17, 2014
AVERAGE part-exchange values continued to rise in March, Manheim’s latest Market Analysis shows.
Values during the month reached £3,285 – a £69 increase when compared with February.
Manheim says the figure was been fuelled by a fall in age from 101 to 100 months and a reduction of average mileages from 77,747 to 75,592 during March.
The figures have once again highlighted that the average selling prices within the dealer sector have continued on the positive price trajectory that the market has experienced since August 2013.
Values during this period have increased by £656, which is reflective of a fall in age of one month and in average mileage by 1,748.
When comparing year-on-year values, Manheim found the average selling price in March was £55 (1.7 per cent) higher than in March 2013. This is despite an increase of 1,157 miles in average mileage and two months in average age. However, despite this rise in age and mileage, the average days in stock has remained the same throughout the period at five days, which suggests that vehicles continue to be highly sought-after at auction.
Daren Wiseman, valuation services manager at Manheim Auctions, said: ‘As we predicted last month, the strong demand for used cars has continued in March, which has caused the average prices to increase yet again. Unless we see a dramatic increase in the volume of vehicles coming to auction then I would expect this trend to continue over the coming months.”
‘The latest SMMT figures show that new car registrations increased by 17.7 per cent in March, to 464,824 units, which was only 2,130 short of the record total that was achieved in 2004. It will be interesting to see how the market reacts as we head towards summer.
‘We are, therefore, inevitably seeing an increase in the number of vehicles coming to auction, but, as yet, this has not had a negative impact upon the average selling price. This means that there continues to be pent-up demand among buyers for quality used cars, which is contributing to a strong used car market.
‘However, as a slight note of caution, as we move further into the year, if vehicle registrations continue to increase, we could see a switch from a sellers’ market to a buyers’ market.’
