Indicata one of the global leaders in analytical and intelligence solutions for the used car industry has suggested used car dealers will continue to push forward in 2020 following a strong performance throughout 2019 and some heavy investments over the past 12 months.
Indicata, have said they look at real-time data of the used car market to provide data for its dealers, and their data suggest that the ever-growing popularity of smaller SUV’s are fuelling this second-hand vehicle growth, and dealers are seeing these outsell the more traditional family hatchbacks or saloons.
Neil Gilligan, Indicata UK business development manager said: “2019 was definitely the year of the used car with dealers investing more time, money and management resource on this area of their business.
“We anticipate 2020 will be an equally strong year following feedback from our independent and franchised dealer customers,”
Indicata also reported that the average used stock age increased in December to 4.9 years and dealers ended the year with older used cars on the forecourt compared to the previous year, and they find their younger used vehicles were selling much faster during October and November.
In addition, they reported dealer stock in 2019 has remained consistent at seven days, reinforcing what a strong year it was for used cars, with the majority of dealers predicting another buoyant year in 2020.
As mentioned research from Indicata found that 26.6% of used cars sold in December were SUVs; however small hatchbacks were the second most popular cars, accounting for 20.4% of used cars sold.
Neil Gilligan stated, “The popularity of SUVs has been fuelled by the volume of smaller, affordable used SUVs reaching the used market. Consumers who would normally spend £10,000 on a family hatchback or saloon suddenly realised they could afford to buy a smaller SUV instead.”
Therefore, to conclude if the experts are to believed dealers will continue to see growth on used car sales and SUV’s and small hatchbacks are the vehicles to stock up on.