The first month of the New Year has been relatively quiet. One used car outlet has stated that they had more customers wanting to sell their cars than those wanting to buy!

Reports from the new car show-rooms paint a slightly different picture with one group reporting more orders than they have stock. We know that some manufactures are still having supply issues following the problems in both Japan and Thailand last year.

In fact one manufacturer has told us that one model line will not be back until June/July of this year.. My view is that the first month of the year is usually a mixed bag. Customers are recovering from the holiday period of December

and New Year and so are looking to stabilize their finances before considering a change of car, even with all the DSF offers... The month of February is usually a much better indicator of what is to come. Remember last year when all and sundry were reporting records sales? I believe this month will set the trend for the first half of the year.

Concentrate on Customer service and sensible trade–in prices and you cannot fail. One dealer has reported a 23% increase in sales by improving the customer experience. Get those basics wrong and you will run out of customers!

Bill Carter
Head of Valuations
Autodata Middle East
Email: bcarter@autodata.ae