Franchised car retailers are offering discounts of up to 40% of a vehicle’s original list price in an efforts to offload their pre-registered 19-plate stock during the September ‘plate change month.
Online retail portal Buyacar has highlighted consumer deals across a variety of brands in recent analysis of the market and identified Audi as one of the biggest-discounting brands, with savings of over 30% on its saloon range and the biggest saving, of 39.89% or £30,525, to be made on a flagship A8 50 TDI Quattro S Line.
The A8 identified as offering the month’s biggest saving had just 11 miles on the clock – representing a saving of £2,775 per mile.
Buyacar managing director, Austin Collins, said: “It’s not uncommon for cars to be sold as nearly new, at big discounts, because they have been taken for a few test drives but we have been struck by the offers we’re seeing on models that clearly haven’t.
“In the case of several currently being offered, the distances recorded on the clock suggest the car has probably only been driven off the transporter and into the showroom before being moved once or twice around the forecourt.”
In his monthly market report Cazana’s director of insight, Ruport Pontin, said that his analysis of the market had shown that pre-registration driven by the requirement for market share and the need to register WLTP cars in the face of the arrival of RDE2 legislation had impacted the market during August.
Today (September 12), AM reported on Indicata’s view that pre-registrations had also impacted used vahicle stock turn last month.
Approaching the market from a consumer standpoint, Collins said: “It’s a cliché that there has never been a better time to buy a new car but when the market is proving as tough for dealers as it is today, the need to clear unsold stock really does lead to amazing bargains.
“And, of course, now that buyers are no longer as motivated by the kudos of having the very latest pair of numbers on their registration plate, it means all the pleasure of owning a new car is available at used car prices.”
Among the other 19-plate discounts identified by Buyacar was a Citroen C4 SpaceTourer, registered this year, which offered savings of £9,681 – 35% off the original price.
A Fiat 500 1.2 Pop with just one mile on the clock, meanwhile, was being offered with £3,570 off – a price cut of nearly a third.
Below are some of the new 19-plate savings identified by Buyacar:
