Dealers are in a crucial period in the push to reclaim lost ground on sales, according to motorcycle expert Rob Hobson of mycarcheck.com.
Hobson says: “With the new bike market running about 5% down against the same period 12 months ago, the next few weeks are going to be crucial in terms of the push to reclaim lost ground.
“While the early part of August was said to be pretty slow across the board – not only in terms of new and used bike sales, but clothing and workshop kit as well – sales did rally later in the month. Although by no means universal, we had plenty of reports that showroom demand was markedly up from mid-August to the turn of the month.”
Basing his market assessment on industry data and feedback from independent and franchised dealers, Hobson went on: “This month we’ll see the new 13 63 plate appearing and, significantly, there has been a high level of pre-registration activity across all manufacturers. It has to be noted that a fair proportion of these will be on the outgoing 13 plate models still looking for buyers – a factor which will undoubtedly hit new bike registrations as the year progresses.”
The sectors showing real strength are the Adventure Sport, Touring, Custom and Trail/Enduro styles. Naked, the biggest single style sector after Scooter, is notably down on the year to date. These trends are reflected in used bike sales, with dealers reporting that the previously popular mid-ground bikes are proving altogether more difficult to sell.
This is in contrast to Sports bikes which are hard work new, based mainly on price levels and, importantly, prices to change restricting. While three-seven-year-old used examples are relatively good news, retail prices are still pretty sensitive as buyers are well educated in what’s available.
“Despite the general upturn over recent weeks, the last four months of the year will see dealers preparing for the drop-off in sales activity. It is already evident that bigger trade buyers are preparing to de-stock as best they can, with a view towards having the funds and space to benefit when values are at their lowest.
“While good retail demand seems assured for the immediate future, and there is plenty of stock available to buy, purchasing decisions will be ever more cautious, based on whether to buy to retail now or hold on to for longer as demand slows. This will result in bigger fluctuations in trade bids based on individual stock holdings and cash flow positions.
“With this in mind, we have eased values pretty much across the board this month, with selected larger falls on certain models (such as bigger Suzuki Bandit and Yamaha Fazer models) dictated by numbers and popularity. While advertised retail levels will probably remain fairly static, the margins to trade bids are likely to increase in the short term until things balance out later in the year.”
MyCarCheck.com/Trade is the trade valuations arm of CDL Vehicle Information Services. It provides buyers and sellers with all the vehicle price data they need.
www.mycarcheck.com/trade