9:02 am, October 21, 2024
The used car market is in its strongest position for some time, thanks to ‘stabilising’ prices and solid demand.
That is the verdict of CarGurus managing director Amanda Symonds, who is the latest industry guest to join us on the Car Dealer Podcast.
Speaking about the current state of the market, Symonds said that leads are currently up ‘double digits’, despite dealers continuing to struggle with stock headaches, due to the lingering impact of the pandemic.
Despite the plus points, Symonds did say that used EV price drops are continuing at a drastic rate, in news which could hit used car dealers in the coming months.
In fact, according to CarGurus data, nine of the ten biggest price drops seen in the last year have been from electric models.
Speaking with hosts James Baggott and Jon Reay, Symonds said: ‘We are seeing that we have a stronger used car market with prices stabilising somewhat. That’s what we’re seeing.
‘One thing I’ve been noticing is, the best deals right now on the used car market are EVs. So the price drops in the EVs is really interesting.
‘Obviously, with the ZEV mandate and new electric cars coming through, they will soon be used cars.
‘I’m curious about how those cars seem to depreciate a bit quicker than the ICE vehicles and we’re seeing a trend. We release an article every month about the best deals for our consumers.
‘We take a look at lots and lots of data points and nine out of the ten cars that have shown the largest price drops in the last year, from September to September, were EVs, interestingly.
‘That’s definitely one of the trends that we’re seeing but generally, we have very strong demand for our used cars.
‘Our leads are up double digits so we are seeing seeing strong demand for used cars right now.’
Symonds’ appearance on the podcast comes at an exciting time for CarGurus, and its PistonHeads sub-brand.
The outfit recently launched a new auction service, which allows sales to be live streamed, and the boss says the service is appealing to an audience of both consumers and dealers.
She added: ‘CarGurus acquired PistonHeads in 2019 and PistonHeads is the number one platform in the UK to buy, sell and own premium, performance and collectible cars, so it really operates in that niche.
‘There’s been some great innovation, so we attract dealers to our site that want their cars to be put in front of the PistonHeads audience of those car enthusiasts that come to our site so frequently.
‘It’s actually the UK’s largest car enthusiast motoring community or online motoring community as well so we get dealers exposure there, but PistonHeads has innovated in its own right as well.
‘We have launched a new auctions product which we’re excited about. It’s small right now, but actually we’re curating really interesting content, the kind of car enthusiast content that people want to see.
‘It’s an exciting experience for folks to watch their car auctioned live and for consumers to come and be able to bid on those cars. It’s peer-to-peer.
‘We’ve actually seen dealers bidding on those cars as well because, as you know, one of the biggest challenges in the industry right now is sourcing inventory.
‘For those in that space – in the pre-informed collectible space – we’ve seen dealers using it to source some inventory as well.’
The Car Dealer Podcast, sponsored by Carwow, sees an industry guest join our hosts to discuss the motor trade’s biggest headlines of every week.
A full list of the stories discussed on this week’s episode can be found here.
You can listen to all episodes of the Car Dealer Podcast on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
