Is Now the Time to Buy?

anotheruser

Have read that now isn't the best time to buy as the lockdown has slowed new/used cars coming to the market.
This means prices are fairly high.

Is now a good time to buy?

Grumpy_chap

Do you need to buy?  If so, now is a good time to buy.  If not, now is a bad time to buy - wait until your car is run into the ground.

Scrapit

anotheruser said:

Have read that now isn't the best time to buy as the lockdown has slowed new/used cars coming to the market.
This means prices are fairly high.

Is now a good time to buy?

Why would what you read here be more persuasive than what you have read elsewhere?

onlyfoolsandparking

Who knows really! 

I can tell you my experience FWIW and that might? shed a little light on your question. Pre-covid I was toying with the idea of getting a newer car as existing one had minor oil leak and it was niggling me, so I explored the market and found a few around 4k (just out of interest model I was looking at was Citroen C4 grand picasso 12 plate) decided against buying as my mechanic solved the leak (cam shaft oil seal and not an expensive fix) but just out of curiosity took another look round recently and same model, same spec etc is currently around 5k so could be a sellers market at the moment but as I said who knows really.

burlingtonfl6

Prices are through the roof, so is demand yet the supply of stock is at a low.
Wait is my advice.

caprikid1

All the car dealers took advantage of bounce back loans from the government, they then went out there chasing stock paying way over the odds with all this cheap money. 
People are losing their jobs and dealers will need at some point to sell stock even if that is at low or minimal margin, unless you need it now wait 6- 12 months.

noclaf

I think the answer is "it depends". If a particular car is proving difficult to shift you may have some wriggle room to negotiate the price down. However if you are after a small/medium cheap to run petrol car in the £3-6k price range I think you will find prices are firmer due to the pent up demand after lockdown and dealers will politely tell you where to go when trying to bring the price down.
Aside from urgently needing a car, I would wait it out..this is exactly what I am doing. I drive a shed and every year have been saying I will change it for something newer but the car is worth less than £800 probably yet having owned it and had it serviced properly for the last 10 years I will not be able to get anything for the same value that is any better...if anything much worse/dodgy history etc so I will wait it out till end of this yr, possibly next year unless something major goes wrong with it. 

anotheruser

Grumpy_chap said:

Do you need to buy?  If so, now is a good time to buy.  If not, now is a bad time to buy - wait until your car is run into the ground.

Yes but unfortunately, I can't risk it not working one day and being beyond fixing. I know any new car could be the same but that doesn't particularly answer the question posted.

Domzy

Thanks for the information, I was looking to buy...I think I will wait!

molerat

If a used car salesman tells you not to buy because prices are too high then it must be true.  A lot of 3 to 3.5 year old ex lease and motability cars will start feeding through in the next few months as the manufacturers start pushing with some tasty deals which will encourage them to get the extended leases back in.

Grumpy_chap

anotheruser said:

Grumpy_chap said:

Do you need to buy?  If so, now is a good time to buy.  If not, now is a bad time to buy - wait until your car is run into the ground.

Yes but unfortunately, I can't risk it not working one day and being beyond fixing. I know any new car could be the same but that doesn't particularly answer the question posted.

There was an article on the BBC breakfast news earlier in the week about a car dealer who was now retailing the older cars that he would normally send to auction because they were getting prices that made it worth his while retailing them out.
Based on that, now is not a good time to buy.

BUT, if you need to buy now, then you need to buy now.

In a more general comment, many people are settling into a "new normal" at the moment which is likely different to "old normal" and possibly different to "future normal".  I use myself as an example.  Before lockdown, I was commuting 140 mile daily and assessing it could be time to think about a new car.  During lockdown, zero mileage for three months (SORN).  From July 1st, back to work but only did 500 miles in the whole month, August looking like it will be similar.  Certainly won't consider changing car until "normal normal" is established and, if mileage will stay lower, options for what will be a suitable car become much wider.
Based on that, now is not a good time to buy.