Manheim reports January surge in used car demand and prices

Manheim’s latest Market Analysis for the first month of 2009 reports a significant increase in used car activity following the Christmas break. Demand and prices have soared beyond the level of any normal seasonal uplift, with record numbers of buyers in the wholesale market fighting over stock. At £6,054, the average wholesale used car selling price was 5.8% (£334) up in January compared with a 3.1% (£185) fall in December. The average selling price increased in all three sectors – Fleet, Dealer and Manufacturer with many of Manheim’s auction centres reporting highest sales levels ever and online sales through Simulcast smashing all previous records.

The extraordinary surge in wholesale demand has taken most of the market by surprise and Manheim are still urging caution as retail dealers settle down to the task of finding new customers for this stock.

Commenting on the current market, Mike Pilkington, Managing Director of Manheim Auctions & Remarketing said, “There is no doubt that dealers had reduced their stocks pre-Christmas and a lot of this current demand has been driven by the need to replenish empty forecourt spaces. Although there appears to be healthy consumer interest, it remains to be seen for just how long this will be sustained. We have also seen many new trade buyers coming to auction and this has contributed to the huge rise in auction conversion rates and of course the more buyers bidding, the higher the prices.”

Manheim’s 19 auction centres throughout the UK have all enjoyed a very strong January. New records have been set in two of the largest sites in Colchester and Bristol where auctions have regularly achieved 90%-100% conversion rates. Colchester smashed the 6,000 sales barrier in a single month, beating its previous record of 5,525 vehicles sold in August 2006 while Bristol with nearly 3,900 vehicles sold beat the previous best monthly total of 3,230 units sold in July 2003.

Simulcast, Manheim Auctions’ online broadcast of physical auctions, has never been so busy with a record 2,100 vehicles sold in January, up 78% year-on-year. The numbers of online bidders often exceeded 100 per sale at several auction centres including Leicester and Coventry. The value of the units sold by Simulcast in January was more than £13 million.

In the Fleet sector average month-on-month values rose by 9.0% (£425) compared with a fall of 3.1% (£149) in December, while in the Dealer sector average month-on-month values rose by 1.9% (£31) compared with a fall of 4.9% (£82) in the previous month. The Manufacturer sector also saw a month-on-month increase of 3.2% (£284) compared with a fall of 5.0% (£465) in December.

Examples of the increases in average wholesale used car selling prices in January compared with December include the Small Hatchback, Large Family and Soft-Roader segments in the Fleet sector which rose by 10.6% (£373), 10.5% (£381) and 16.3% (£851) respectively. In the Dealer sector, the Compact Executive segment rose by 8.0% (£182), the MPV segment rose by 7.5% (£148) and the Off-Roader segment increased by 26.2% (£710).