22/04/2010

I can't remember the last time I had to park down the road and walk to this site. When did they pull down that pub? Anyway ...

The place was heaving. Thursdays are traditionaly 'price-level' cars, which shouldn't be quite the draw. The best explanation I heard was that March being so successful, especially with the continuation of the scrappage scheme that the manufacturers couldn't manage without government help - but can now, apparently - the cars that would have been carefully hoovered up from the small ads and eBay and so on have all been traded in. And now franchised dealers are getting increasingly switched on to the idea of retailing older cars, the supply to those further down the chain is getting tight.

That said, there's still no enthusiasm at all for any kind of remedial work that needs more than a wet sponge. Bodyshop prices are more than enough to put off dealers who aren't working on the biggest margins and who don't know quite what to make of the next six months. This means that a lot of the fleet sales - where the stock is still suffering from the effects of being run on a bit longer, repaired a little less - are still a struggle.

It will also be interesting to see if everyone who didn't get away last week decides to spend their holiday money on something else to cheer themselves up. A little hint for the marketeers out there ...