Leading vehicle data provider Glass’s has predicted next year’s new car market will fall by 3.5% to around 2.6 million registrations as the effects of Brexit begin to take hold.
According to Rupert Pontin, head of valuations at Glass’s while the economy will remain strong, the cost of importing vehicles into the UK is likely to rise owing to a weaker pound, while he suggested new car buyers may have less income available thanks to rising food and fuel prices.
However, Pontin said next year’s market is one of the most difficult to predict as he is unsure whether or not the car market – which has so far remained resilient despite the vote to leave the European Union earlier this year – will continue to remain stable.
While the predicted fall in registrations sounds disappointing it would actually represent the second-highest figure in a decade after 2015, Glass’s said.
Pontin said that while the economy will remain strong, the cost of importing vehicles into the UK is likely to rise owing to a weaker pound, while he suggested new car buyers may have less income available thanks to rising food and fuel prices.
“We have become used to the new car market growing on a year-by-year basis and when that stops happening, there will inevitably be a feeling of some unease,” he said. “However, if you look at the bigger picture, the fact is that a 2.6 million market in 2017 would still be a very good performance in recent historicical terms.”
“We should certainly not be feeling as though there is any kind of crisis underway and the underlying strength of the economy will be quite good. Conditions are simply likely to become a little more difficult,” he added.
