Greater than half of sellers (53%), a rise from 34% in February, consider shopper confidence is on the rise. This Startline Used Automotive Tracker knowledge was based mostly on 302 customers and 58 sellers.
The share of sellers who consider the state of the financial system is best has additionally improved from 21% final month to 24% now.
Paul Burgess, CEO at Startline Motor Finance, mentioned: “The sellers we spoke to this month clearly really feel that there was a powerful uplift in used automobile purchaser sentiment for this month, which is a really optimistic discovering, particularly alongside their slight enchancment within the notion of the financial system.
“The question is whether this marks a welcome shift in consumer confidence for the longer term or is effectively just a blip in the data, and it’ll be interesting to see the results of our research during the next few months.”
Nonetheless, the variety of sellers who mentioned the used automobile market was bettering fell from 59% in February to 55% now, optimism surrounding EVs fell from 48% to 45%, and emotions on inventory provide was unchanged at 45%.
Startline discovered 69% of sellers felt optimistic in regards to the used automobile market, down from 72% in February, whereas 10% held detrimental views.
Burgess mentioned: “There’s a combined message coming by way of right here in our findings – sellers may consider that shopper confidence is up however they’re not correspondingly optimistic in regards to the used automobile market general.
“Our feeling is that there are a selection of points at play right here – from the forthcoming impression of upper Nationwide Insurance coverage prices and elevated minimal wage to the uncertainty surrounding the Zero Emissions Automobile Mandate and electrification basically.
“All of these are to an extent weighing down on the general mood of dealers.”
