Used automobile purchaser confidence is at its lowest degree for six months with shoppers expressing concern concerning the financial system.
The proportion of motorists who’re optimistic concerning the concept of shopping for a used automobile has fallen from 59% in August to 48% now, exhibits February’s Startline Used Automobile Tracker.
Those that really feel impartial about altering their automobile have elevated from 34% to 43% during the last six months however those that are damaging has solely risen barely – from 7% to 10%.
Paul Burgess, CEO at Startline Motor Finance, mentioned: “There’s a normal feeling of negativity across the financial system for the time being and this seems to be feeding by way of into used automobile purchaser sentiment, with fairly a considerable fall in confidence during the last six months.
“Nevertheless, there’s some nuance to this image. Largely, folks look like transferring from feeling optimistic to impartial concerning the prospect of shopping for a automobile, relatively than turning into damaging.
“This is perhaps reflective of the wider economic mood – things aren’t bad by most measures, they just don’t necessarily feel good.”
Amongst those that really feel damaging, the highest purpose for not altering their automobile is that their present automobile is okay (41%), their funds are worse (38%), they simply don’t really feel like a change (24%) and that used automobiles are at the moment too costly (17%).
Those that are optimistic say that their present automobile wants changing (49%), they simply really feel like a change (31%), their private funds have improved (25%), they need a much bigger automobile (23%) and electrical automobile costs have fallen (15%).
“Final month, we launched some knowledge about how used automobile consumers felt about 2025 basically and the general message was that they had been taking a really sensible view. Largely, they’d change their automobile when it wanted altering after which search for the most effective deal.
“These figures for February seem to underline that impression. More people are seeing a deterioration in their personal finances than are seeing an improvement, and relatively few are in a position to just change their car because they feel like it.”
The Startline Used Automobile Tracker is compiled month-to-month for Startline Motor Finance by APD International Analysis, well-known within the motor trade for his or her enterprise intelligence reporting and buyer expertise packages. This time, 302 shoppers and 58 sellers had been questioned.
