A growing trend in recent years means that a sizeable minority of dealers and traders will continue to buy stock well into December in order to “grab a bargain,” says Glass’s.
The vehicle data provider says that dealers are even willing to buck recent trends and acquire stock that needs more work, because the margins attainable are so much higher than usual.
Rupert Pontin, director of valuations, said, “Typically, overall prices in December fall by something like 3% as a direct result of a lack of activity in the marketplace.
“However, that figure masks the fact that there tend to be many genuine individual bargains available, with some cars being made available with no or low reserves because the owners simply want to sell before the end of the year.
“Savvy dealers know this and we have gradually been seeing more sales activity in December in recent years, even for cars that need work or which will probably stick on the forecourt for a while.
“These are the exactly the kinds of cars that have been difficult to sell during 2016, when ready-to-retail has been the mantra. However, if you make them cheap enough, they will find trade buyers in December.”
Rupert added that there was, however, also a counter-development with some other dealers starting to run down their stock amidst concerns of a slower start to 2017.