The economic recovery has impacted the UK’s new and used car market on a regional basis, according to a report by the UK’s largest vehicle remarketing company, BCA.
The findings in the report entitled ‘The Closer View’ show that fleets should take regional variations into account when disposing of vehicles because used car buyers have different preferences depending on their location.
Report author professor Peter Cooke, emeritus professor in automotive management at the University of Buckingham, said that while price, model and brand remain critical in coming to a final decision, the report shows that used car buyers often have quite different expectations across the regions, which creates marketing and promotional implications for vehicle disposal.
Cooke said: “Economic recovery is affecting different parts of the country at different rates, and in different ways, in terms of inflation, earnings and unemployment.
“While, for example, escalating house prices may be creating a feeling of increasing wealth in London, they are probably having little impact in most other regions.
“There is no panacea for the changing marketplace. The critical point is to be aware of those local and regional developments and to be able to respond to them effectively.”
The report looks at a host of factors on a regional basis and cites the example of diesel uptake in the used car market, which varies hugely across the UK, with more rural areas such as East Anglia showing a 65% preference for diesels, whereas this is as low as 27% in both London and the East Midlands.