Coming back to the state of the car market, the bulk market is weakening with new car sales dropping, incentives and discount deals common. Its not that easy to say why this is happening. Private sales down 9% business sales down 5% in september and the trend is declining. Sure diesels have fallen further than petrol and alternative fuel vehicles are up 40% to a 5% market share, but some of that decline must reflect the boom in sales that we have just had. You dont buy a new car every year.
What I wonder will be the effect on MMC. Well Morgan buyers being of above average age for the most part, and worry / gloom coming with age, I can see Brexit having a more marked effect on Morgan. Pensioners more inclined to sit on their pension pot than to spend it. And the numbers of new cars in dealer showrooms suggests that MMC has swung from a shortage to an over supply.
The other area is the classic car market. Increasingly highly priced classics are failing to make reserve at auctions and are sticky on the websites. The really rare cars are still fetching big money with a record of 18million for a dbr1 at monterey and not much less for a mclaren p1 ( interesting to see two brits push the ferraris out of their usual top spot) However further down the quality ladder, the situation is quite different and you have to wonder that as Brexit bites and the economy slows whether all those "collectors" who bought on finance will now need to think of selling. How much worse if inflation rises a bit and so do interest rates.
I know that I am much more of a glass half empty person but I cant escape the feeling that we are past the peak and on a downslope. Just too many straws in the wind.
