Friday, March 12, 2010

Dealers battered by worst year in a decade

Last year was the worst the used car business has seen since 2000, according to the latest data from Experian, the global information services company.
 
Annual sales fell by 5.7 per cent during 2009 to 6,798,864 used cars. The last time the used car industry experienced similar performance was in 2000, when 6,713,269 used cars were sold.
 Used car sales had been falling during each quarter of the year, with the final quarter (October to December) seeing a drop of 5.9 per cent compared to the same period in 2008. However, in comparison to the previous quarter (Q3 - July to September) sales during Q4 experienced a far greater drop - down 15.7 per cent.
 Ford and Vauxhall continue to own the lion’s share of used car sales. The best selling used car of Q4 2009 was the Ford Fiesta. Second, was the Vauxhall Corsa with the Ford Focus and Vauxhall Astra taking third and fourth place respectively. BMW was the only manufacturer to see a rise in sales across all used models for the year as a whole.