March registrations – bag a bargain
Brits love their cars and they love to show them off – especially if it’s a new one with the latest registration plate. It’s a tradition that stretches back to 1963, when the original ‘suffix’ plates were introduced. Ever since then we’ve had a ‘year identifier’ that marks out when a car was first registered. Until 2001 we got one identifier per year, but when the current registration system was introduced we got two for each year; one for March and the other for September. As a result the previous single spike in new car sales became two, the March one being the bigger (and more popular) of the pair. With that in mind, we’ve just had the biggest spike in new car sales that we’ll see this year, so from here on until early 2017, dealers are going to have to work harder for your money. Which is why now is a great time to go shopping for that new car. Manufacturers have to keep churning out cars even if the demand isn’t really there for them; it’s no good running a factory at a fraction of capacity. To move those cars on, dealers are given targets and quotas, with plenty of incentives to keep shifting metal. Some marques have to work harder than others to shift stock, but even the premium brands have to try harder than you might think. When shopping for your new car, your mission is to secure the best discount you can, which means haggling hard and not being taken in by the salesman’s sob stories about how tight his margins are. But be realistic, as dealers generally make most of their profits from selling used cars and doing servicing. With most cheaper cars the margins are unbelievably small, which is why the bigger the car, the bigger the discounts available.