DON’T feel bad, things are going to be alright – at least that’s the message from the SMMT’s Paul Everitt.

Speaking to Car Dealer Magazine, Everitt said car sales will rebound, but warned it could take a while yet.

‘I think the truth is that we are in for a long haul here,’ said the SMMT chief executive. ‘We’re not going to suddenly see a big bounce and the hundreds of thousands of units we’ve lost during the recession suddenly rebound.

‘Everybody has to steal themselves to the fact that the economic circumstances mean that growth will be slow and will take a while. It’s going to be two or three years before perhaps we start to get back to levels we might be more familiar with.’

Everitt said that next year the new car market will top two million units but added this will be a slow process – not the dramatic bounce back many have been predicting.

‘If we get to 2.1m next year I’ll be out having a party,’ he joked. ‘I don’t want to be negative about it, but we need to be realistic. The economic circumstances that we face in UK are difficult because the whole thrust of what government is doing to reduce debt and rebalance the economy.

‘At the same time inflation is higher than we would like, we’ve had a VAT increase and no one is really seeing an increase in their salary to compensate, so the cost of living is squeezing and that is not going to go away over the next year or so.’

DEMAND

However, Everitt does believe that there is some pent-up demand in the new car market – and it’s up to dealers and manufacturers to trigger that.

He argues that buying a new car shouldn’t be seen as having to find a £10k or £15k lump by buyers and rather seen as a way of fixing their outgoings.

‘My gut sense is there is some stored up demand out there and it’s about what triggers that back into the marketplace,’ he explained.

‘One of the areas we are looking at is that people are alarmed about buying a new car because it’s a lot of expense – these are big ticket items – but actually most people don’t buy outright, they buy in a variety of ways and it’s now easier and you get a lot more certainty in what your monthly costs will be when you buy a new car.

‘I’m not sure we have articulated that to our customers. Those running a five-year-old car could see the numbers start to make sense – they are not unattractive.

‘The upfront cost is relatively low, most come with some sort of service package, most will be more fuel efficient so as a package there is an argument to be made.’

He added it was up to the car industry to get these important messages across to trigger buyers into coming back to the market.