Three out of four consumers 'no longer wait for the new plate'

9:57 am, November 10, 2016

NEW registration plates are no longer worth waiting for, say three out of four new car buyers, according to a new study of car buying habits.

The findings suggest that ongoing spikes in new car registration activity in March and September are fleet, dealer and manufacturer-led, rather than in response to consumer demand.

Almost 1,000 consumers were questioned by the online motor retailer BuyaCar.co.uk in a bid to identify the biggest motivations for choosing a new car.

Despite March and September typically accounting for about a third of any annual total of new cars registered, 77.5 per cent of buyers say they would not delay their purchase of a new car to have the latest number plate.

Growing consumer scepticism over the desirability of the very latest plate is borne out by the new car purchase activity of online customers for BuyaCar.co.uk, which has seen steady growth throughout the year without the spikes associated with dealer registration activity.

Among those who said they would wait for a new plate, most saw it as a practical step rather than image-led.

Austin Collins, managing director of BuyaCar.co.uk, said: ‘Our survey reflects all car buyers and not just the growing number of online customers who perhaps see the car purchase process as similar to any other transaction.

‘So our findings support all the other evidence emerging that buying a car is a practical process, driven by need rather than vanity.

‘The fact that a third of cars are registered in just two months of the year, while more than three quarters of people say they pay little or no heed to the latest plate, reveals a widening gap between registration activity and patterns of demand in the market.

‘This has been a tremendous year for motor retail in Britain and we believe the steady growth shown by our own results reflects the true underlying market dynamic, rather than the artificial peaks created by fleet purchasers and manufacturer target-led dealer registrations.’

MORE: Yorkshire honours JCT600 founder and chairman Jack Tordoff

MORE: Speculation surrounds the future of Caralot