SUPPLY and demand will dictate whether the boom in the used car market will continue, says HPI.
And this, in turn, will be what helps calm the volatility in the market car dealers have see so far in 2009.
It’s small cars that are most in demand, and expected to remain shortest supply, says HPI’s Martin Keighley.
‘A shortage of quality used stock is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.’
This isn’t necessarily restricted to small cars, though. New car sales may be down by 30 percent, but the used car market continues to prosper.
Which means that if you didn’t get in early, you may have missed out.
‘Cars just looked unbelievably cheap earlier in the year, but this is now not the case on the most popular models,’ says Keighley.
The demand issue could stem proceedings, though. ‘Economic experts tell us that, whilst it is slowing down, the recession is expected to last for many months yet.
‘We’ve seen values level out, and predict that they will tail off during the summer for the majority of vehicles.’
So, in short, while the used car bargains have gone, the exponential rises seen earlier in the year shouldn’t be taken as read, either.
Meaning sanity could be returning to the used car arena?
DATED: 05.05.09
FEED: CDM
