I think personally right now is a bad time to be buying cars. We are on the verge of something big. How can car prices still command a premium when no one has money to buy them? Surely with interest rates going up, inflation going up and energy costs going up people are going to be tightening their belts and not spending money on used & new cars?
People are still buying cars.
I got my Mums Aygo for her three years ago and paid £6900 for it with 25k miles.
Sold it too Cazoo for £7125 with 34k miles.
Took her car shopping today every dealership we visited had someone signing the paperwork buying a car and plenty of people browsing.
In the end my mate works for Skoda and he got us a Skoda Citigo for her at mates rates which was really hard work for him as the business manager knew he could get it sold at advertised price but a few strings pulled and in the end we got it £1000 below asking and whilst I was buying that for my mother there was a family in also signing paperwork.
Having a chat with my mate he said in March he personally sold 35 cars and he felt March was the peak but in saying that he himself still sold 20 cars in April and how now already matched that in May so in his words it’s slowed be sales are still ahead of what they considered normal times, they do now have plenty of used stock as did all garages and the general vibe is new cars are still delayed even basic cars and as such used car sales are still stronger than expected boosted somewhat by the now better supply of used cars because supply of new cars did improve.
The cost of living increase could see a boost in sales of cheaper cars or cheaper to run cars and then on the flip side the people who won’t be impacted will keep buying up the cars that people loved. If I had millions in the bank and was a petrol head I’d literally fill a warehouse with loads of cool cars because why not if you can afford too and especially if they are considered an asset now, better than cash in bank and better to look at, plus you can drive them too.