10:04 am, August 11, 2020
Used car values held steady in July dipping only slightly on June, according to BCA, which said an increase in stock supply had been well matched by rising demand from professional buyers.
Values for used cars averaged £8,517 over the month, which was down by just £48 (0.6 per cent) against June, while sold volumes rose by more than 30 per cent.
Conversion rates stayed strong, with the online sector channels frequently seeing up to 1,500 buyers for individual events.
BCA said there were record numbers of vehicles online in July, and daily sales entries typically exceeded 5,500, often rising above 6,000 – July 29 saw nearly 6,300 vehicles offered in online sales, which BCA said was the highest volume of vehicles it had ever offered in online sales on one day.
Stuart Pearson, chief operating officer for UK remarketing, said: ‘Momentum continued into July and BCA has expanded its online remarketing programme significantly to meet the demand, running 20 sales in parallel at any one time, with auctioneers and clerks, vendor representatives and buyers operating remotely and safely socially distanced.
‘Daily entries are regularly exceeding 5,500 vehicles and demand across most sectors is ahead of what we would typically see at this time of year.
‘Our focus has been on creating online events that are targeted to make it easy for customers to find the stock they need and provide maximum choice, along with the ability to scale quickly to meet the demands of the market.’
He added: ‘We have had up to 1,500 buyers logging in for some individual sales, underlining the appetite the market has for the stock on offer at BCA, particularly when this is multiplied across the many concurrent sales taking place each day.
‘In addition, the activity through our fixed price BCA Buy Now channel and BCA Bid Now timed auctions has significantly accelerated from the period prior to lockdown, with many customers having the confidence to purchase from these channels for the first time.
‘There is continued interest in higher-value, retail-ready vehicles and we are now running weekly Top Car sales featuring prestige, luxury and sporting marques, reflecting the demand from our buyers for this stock.
‘Interest remains high for lower-value, budget vehicles, maintaining the trend we have seen since the first days of lockdown and resulting in some unprecedented price increases.’
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