20 December 2010

Christmas has never been a great time of the year to sell cars but the week after can be a retail frenzy. Lots of high street sales, lots of bored families out and about and your end of year targets to be met.

Who knows what the weather will throw at us this year but here’s a tip that might make life a little bit easier – the DVLA’s automated registration system (AFRL) is going to be open for business on Monday, January 3. That means you can sell a new car in the week after Christmas, register it on January 3 as a 2011 model and escape the 2.5% VAT rise on January 4.

Whether transaction prices will actually rise in January remains a moot point. Many carmakers put prices up in early October to give themselves some room for manoeuvre on the VAT rise. But list prices will have to show the new VAT rate and, as a deal closer, saving 2.5% sounds hard to beat.

Some carmakers are already onto this. One senior executive told me he expects to see a big registration spike at the start of January – at least it will make a change from the usual spike at the end of the month.

It may also mean that, against all expectations, new car registrations will start 2011 ahead of target. The outlook for the rest of the year seems less clear. Whatever happens over the next two weeks – and in the year ahead – everybody at Auto Retail Network wishes you a happy and peaceful Christmas.

With one daughter in high street retailing and the other in the hospitality industry, I don’t need reminding that not everybody will be on holiday. Auto Retail Agenda will be back on Monday, 3 January.

Meanwhile, if you have a story for us, or want to get something off your chest, email me: rupert@auto-retail.com

Rupert Saunders
 

Tags: 2011, Christmas, sales, staff, VAT rise, week, workload