Almost every broker that took part in Paragon’s Headlight broker survey said they expected a strong end to 2015, with 91% predicting new registrations to be equal to or greater than the same period last year.
This prediction came despite new car registrations falling year-on-year in October, after almost three years of continuous growth.
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There were a number of reasons identified by brokers in the survey, which involved 30 UK brokers, for industry confidence. A total of 80% said economic certainty after the election was a key factor underpinning car buyer confidence.
Nine out of ten brokers said they thought people were buying cars now before a potential interest rate rise, while 60% also said a stable interest rate environment was encouraging more buyers into the market. A total of 45% pointed to greater employment security as a reason for strong car sales.
Julian Rance, head of Paragon Car Finance, said: "We all know how important a stable and positive economic outlook is to business and consumer confidence. What’s interesting to see here, is just how highly brokers rate the impact of greater economic certainty post-election as well as interest rate stability when it comes to encouraging car buyers into the market."
The survey also looked at recent trends. According to brokers, customer replacement cycles continued to shrink compared to the previous quarter. In Q2 2015, six out of ten brokers reported that the average customer looked to change their car within three years. This had grown to seven out of ten in Q3 2015.
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By GlobalDataSimilarly, brokers reported that the average deposit amount had fallen, with almost half of new cars (48%) of new car customers paying a deposit of between 0%-10% of full purchase price in Q3 2-15, up from 35% in Q2 2015. In the used segment, 56% of deposits fell into this bracket, up from 46%, over the same period.
