Higher prices and limited options push car buyers from new to used

The most popular cars in early 2024 were petrol superminis – and Ford’s Fiesta was the top seller

Motor trade is struggling to shift new cars, with some dealers considering dropping their franchises

At Platts of Marlow, a Ford retail dealer that will celebrate 100 years in the Berkshire town in 2025, they’re contemplating life without new Blue Oval cars.

“Even now, there’s such a limited range of Ford models left to sell,” said Jim Platt, company chairman and son of the founder.

“Once we had as many as 30 but now we’re down to five. “The Fiesta, which used to account for 50% of our sales, is no longer made and the Focus will soon be dropped. These are the models we can sell to private, retail customers. Fortunately, we can still offer them the Puma, which is our best-seller.”

Platt said the absence of a wider range of alternative models means his new car sales are down by 30%.

Fortunately, he’s finding that many private customers who miss the old models and who aren’t interested in electric cars are prepared to part-exchange their cars for used and nearly new Fords instead.

However, according to Platt, sourcing such cars is becoming harder by the month as more dealers compete to buy stock.

One hundred miles away in Dudley, West Midlands, this scenario of declining sales of new cars to private customers is also being played out at Summit Garage.

The dealership, founded 80 years ago, currently holds the MG franchise but will soon quit it due to declining retail sales.

Co-owner John Newey said: “The motor trade is facing some difficult times at the moment, with the decline in the number of customers actually purchasing. I know that MG has in its own words been growing exponentially but the reality is, this year, there has been more pressure with less and less retail business.”

Figures from the SMMT reveal the situation unfolding in the UK’s car showrooms. According to the trade body, sales of new cars to private buyers fell 12.9% in May, taking the decline since the start of the year to 11.3%.

With manufacturers under pressure to comply with the ZEV mandate requirement that 22% of their sales this year are electric, the SMMT highlighted that, despite generous incentives, EV sales to private buyers actually fell by 2% in May.

SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes said: “Consumers enjoy a plethora of new electric models and some very attractive offers, but manufacturers can’t sustain this scale of support on their own indefinitely. Their success so far should be a signpost for the next government that a faster and fairer transition requires carrots, not just sticks.”

However, experts believe the SMMT’s plea ignores the real issue facing car makers: that many private buyers are just not that interested in EVs.

Instead, they are choosing either to keep their old car or to replace it with a new, smaller combustion-engined model, a move reflected in the fact that, for the year to date, the best-selling new car to private buyers is the Ford Puma, followed by the Mini Hatch and the Vauxhall Corsa.

An industry insider told Autocar: “The early EV adopters have all adopted but now there’s no transition because not enough people are prepared to abandon their combustion-engined cars.

“Those who would like to replace their car with a new model of the same type are finding there’s less choice and prices have risen to unaffordable levels.”

For a growing number of these people, the answer is to buy a used car instead. In the same month that the SMMT revealed the continuing decline in private new car sales, it reported that sales of used cars, which are bought mainly by private buyers, had increased by 6.5% during the first three months of the year to almost two million units, a five-year high.

With more of them entering the market, sales of used EVs increased but easily the most popular cars were petrol superminis – and Ford’s Fiesta was the top seller.

This strong performance is reflected by auction group BCA, which says that in May it recorded its second highest sales volume so far this year, that it has seen a “substantial” increase in active buyers and that used prices remain stable.

So it seems that while the new car showrooms are quiet, the used car forecourts are busier than ever.

*What were the best-selling used cars in 2024?*