Over half a million new cars and nearly three-quarters of a
million used cars were sold on finance from motor dealerships in
2011 in the UK, according to figures from the Finance & Leasing
Association (FLA).
In what the FLA claims is a “record year”, 62.9% of new
cars were purchased using dealer finance, almost 10 percentage
points up on 2010, totalling 517,493 vehicles.
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The total number of used cars bought with dealer finance rose by
4% over the same period to 728,971 cars.
In a market which
dropped 4.4%, year-on-year, the total number of new cars sold
using dealer finance was up 1%.
Paul Harrison, head of motor finance at the
FLA, said: “Despite some of the gloomy headlines on retail
confidence, in 2011 growth in the car finance market was driven by
consumers.”
The total value of all advances for new and
used cars was £13.61bn, split almost 50/50 between new and used
cars. The total value of advances for new cars was up by 5%,
year-on-year, and 4% for used cars.
The average advance for a new car in 2011 was
£13,256, and £9,257 for a used car.
Of all retail car finance provided in 2011,
61.1% was through personal contract purchase (PCP), up from 58.7%
in 2010, and 30.4% was through hire purchase, down from 34% in
2010.
Kirk Franks, sales manager at Alphera, said the figures were
“great news for the industry. During the period of recession,
financial companies and dealers were forced to work smarter, review
products and offer more innovative packages to customers.
“The results now speak for themselves.”
Paul Harrison will be one of many
contributors to the 2012 forecast on regulation to be published in
February’s issue of
Motor Finance
magazine.
richard.brown@vrlfinancialnews.com
