Dealers experience healthy competition to buy higher value SUVs to satisfy customer orders reports Aston Barclay

 Premium brands are dominating Aston Barclay’s June used car desirability Index with the Porsche Taycan, Range Rover Velar and Audi Q7 the three most sought-after cars at auction.

Dealers are competing to buy higher value used SUVs to satisfy customer orders as many are still protecting their cashflow by not stocking these vehicles in large numbers.

The only two models on the list not a premium SUV or saloon were the MG5 and Tesla Model Y in sixth and 10^th place. This reinforces that dealers are also starting to compete with one another for zero emission stock at both ends of the price scale.

JLR secured three out of the top 10 places on the index with the Velar, Range Rover and F-Pace, and BMW two places with its X5 and X4.

“Higher value premium SUVs have been in demand for the past four years, but the big difference now is that dealers are buying the majority of these vehicles to order. Stocking costs have gone up over the past 6-9 months in the form of higher interest rates and this has changed dealer behaviour as to what they park on their forecourt,” commented Nick Thompson, Aston Barclay’s chief customer officer.

“Many dealers will be stocking two to three £10-15,000 used cars rather than one £50k car, with auctions giving them the flexibility to source this stock quickly when they need it. With used EVs dealers continue to stock the lower value vehicles they are turning to auction when they want something different. Auctions are playing a big part in helping dealers manage their used car stocking in the most efficient manner in the current economic client,” he added.

Aston Barclay’s monthly desirability index takes into consideration three key metrics: web views prior to sale, number of physical and online sale bids, and sale price achieved as a percentage of CAP average.

Return to news index