Property consultancy Knight Frank and accounting group UHY Hacker Young have said conversations with their clients indicate pre-registration levels are ‘under control’.
This is in contrast to reports to a BBC report from last week, which described the practise of pre-registering cars as ‘like a drug’ among dealers to hit sales targets.
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Tom Poynton, partner in Knight Frank's Automotive Team, and Paul Daly, partner in UHY Hacker Young's Automotive Team, disputed there was necessarily a problem. They said: “There are of course risks to the future equilibrium of supply and demand given the uncertainties that are currently in the market. However, historically, dealer groups have been highly successful at being flexible and absorbing any imbalances that might occur and we would anticipate a similar response should some of these risks manifest themselves in the future."
"If current exchange rate weakness remains in the pound this will likely result in a reduction in the level of supply into the UK which will also assist with maintaining equilibrium."
Poynton said: “Pre-registration is often of net benefit to both manufacturers and distributors.”
“Pre-registering vehicles enables distributors to simultaneously meet their sales targets – whilst enabling them to offer their customers more choice.”
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By GlobalDataDaly added: “This is not to say that pre-registration of vehicles is not a delicate process which needs to be done with a careful eye on levels of stock, debt and cash flow.”
“The practice of pre-registering vehicles needs to be carefully managed by distributors – or they risk taking on too much stock which keeps assets illiquid.”
