USED CAR prices in Britain are showing a sustained and significant increase, news that will come as a blow to Irish bargain-hunters who have become accustomed to picking up cut-price used cars from the UK.
Over the past month, Britain’s two biggest auction houses, BCA and Manheim, have reported exceptional sales results.
BCA sold more cars in January than in any previous year and reported an average successful sales rate of 92 per cent – the highest since 1946.
Manheim says the average value of a used car rose by 5 per cent in January, coming on the back of a sustained decline in values last year. By the end of 2008, the average used car had lost one-fifth of its value – coupled with sterling’s fall, this made buying a used British car tempting for Irish motorists.
However, BCA has seen the value of used cars rise for the third consecutive month, signalling to many that rock-bottom prices seen at the end of 2008 may not be seen again.
One Irish dealer who has imported used cars from Britain has noted a significant rise in prices since the start of the year. He could buy a 2008 VW Golf Match 1.9 TDI for £9,798 (around €11,100) within the British motor trade in December, but a 2007 version cost £10,500 (around €11,900) this week.
The Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) has called for the Government to introduce measures to help awaken the industry, which has suffered from a poor availability of credit and low consumer confidence.
One such proposal is the introduction of a scrappage scheme. However, several car firms have introduced their own campaigns. Opel, for example, has launched an offer that provides up to €2,250 on top of what is being offered by Opel dealers against trade-ins.
One brand which has seen sales badly affected is BMW, with its Irish operation posting a 77 per cent drop in sales for the traditionally bumper month of January.
Speaking to The Irish Times, managing director Sean Green said: "One problem is that you have a county identifier on the car which goes with it for life. . . if you register to a particular county, it can be hard to sell."
According to Green, the German registration system allows for the re-registration of a car to where the owner is. “Registration statistics here are useless, with many people simply registering their car in Dublin. The system doesn’t make sense if it’s not accurate, and it penalises some counties. If you have a 7 Series registered with, say, an Offaly plate, you could have a €20,000 difference between this and a Dublin-registered car at trade-in time.”