These may be tough times for new car salesmen, but their colleagues from the used showroom are rubbing their hands. Again a month outperformed the same one last year.
Last October, car companies sold 116,343 used cars, 6 percent more than the same month last year. This is evident from figures from industry association Bovag and RDC. A nice boost for an industry that is so difficult to sell its new business in these corona times. With that, October 2020 beats not only its 2019 namesake, but all October months since the start of the count.
This also has repercussions on the cumulative count. Up to and including October, the specialist trade sold 1,085,694 used cars, which is about twenty thousand more than the same period last year, a small plus of 1.9 percent. And that while March, April and May were behind by 14, 26 and 5 percent respectively.
Interestingly, the trade has already pushed quite a few electric cars out of the showroom. 10,815 pieces to be precise, a doubling of the first ten months of 2019. LPG was 15 percent less. Of all used cars there were 12.2 percent diesels, that was 14.2 percent last year. Hybrid rose from 3.1 to 4.3 percent.
Clapping hands at the front door actually decreased last month. A total of 62,871 used cars were traded between private individuals, a minus of 3.3 percent. Cumulatively, this was 626,820 units in 2020 up to and including last month, 8.5 percent more than last year. Bovag fears that last month’s decline in private trade is a result of the second corona wave and a precursor to what also awaits professional trade.