Gross sales of latest and used vehicles fell by 13% in a “conflicting” January, when in comparison with the identical month final yr.
Knowledge from lead administration agency iTrackLeads reveals that the variety of enquiries for brand new and used vehicles remained excessive throughout the month, however gross sales and handovers declined sharply.
Adrian Favill, director of iTrackLEADS, mentioned: “January presents some conflicting alerts. Whereas the variety of enquiries and check drives remained robust, regardless of some well-publicised fears in regards to the economic system, the variety of gross sales and handovers dropped markedly.
“Whereas the nation is going through financial uncertainty, it’s important that sellers stay proactive when following up enquiries and shifting prospects via the gross sales course of. It’s doubtless that the variety of misplaced gross sales, or prospects falling out of the gross sales course of, will improve over the approaching months.”
The examine sampled information from 300 sellers nationwide and confirmed check drives solely declined 5 per cent, however car handovers fell 30%.
Demand from automobile consumers is alleged to be on a “downward development” after retailers skilled declining gross sales leads in December. Final month, iTrackLeads revealed the variety of enquiries made to UK automobile retailers fell by 10.3% in December towards the identical month in 2021.
Check drives declined by 7% and gross sales of latest and used autos by 13%.
Knowledge printed by the Society of Motor Producers and Merchants (SMMT), in January, confirmed a 2% decline in UK new automobile registrations final yr to 1.61m items. The sector stays round 700,000 items down on pre-COVID ranges.