SITUATION:
- CNW Research’s June report says that casual, private party sales will be running 22% higher than a year ago and are selling a higher volume of used vehicle sales units than independent dealers.
- Franchised dealers still lead the retail used vehicle sales volume numbers, but private party is expected to grow. Will this be impacting fleet remarketing?
- CNW is estimating that the used-car industry in the US should top 41 million units into the foreseeable future with 2016 hitting a peak of 43.5 million sales.
- Private party sales will continue to climb and reach 31% by 2020. In recent times, private party sales have surpassed independents and moved up to number two, a significant change given the growth in independent dealers in the past five years as General Motors and Chrysler cut franchised dealers from their networks.
- CNW reports that the hottest-selling used-car models are selling primarily through larger franchised dealers.
- Older, less desirable vehicles are flooding the private party market on Craigslist and other popular websites. CNW expects independent dealers to steadily lose some market share.
- For fleet remarketers, it appears likely these transitions in retail used vehicle sales won’t make much of a difference.
- What’s happening on the wholesale front is having more of an effect, such as where auctions are headed with more upstream channels growing and traditional auction sales undergoing change.
SOURCE: Retail Automotive Summary
