Where have all the cars gone????

You only have to look around the nearest used car lot to see that there is a shortage of used cars available. What used to be a car lot full to the brim with cars bumper to bumper, door to door is no doubt, one where you can now drive a bus between the cars for sale. 

So where have all the cars gone?


Simples really!!! People are not trading their 1, 2, 3 or 4 year old cars in for new ones in the numbers they were pre-recession. According to Glass' guide there could as many as 600,000 fewer 1 and 2 year old cars around in 2010, obviously next year these cars become the 2 & 3 year old cars and the problem is compounded. Glass estimates that by 2011 there will be around 2 million fewer cars aged between 1 and 5 years old than were in use in 2008.


What can motor dealers and traders do to help alleviate this problem?
There are the tradtional buying routes for stock, auctions, fellow traders and px's. Now, almost without exception every dealership and car lot now has a banner outside saying "we buy your car for cash". That's great,  but this may only get them one or two cars a month, hardly enough to make up the shortfall.


Other companies have set up free online car valuation and car buying services on the internet. Spending thousands advertising on search engines in the hope that they will be paying enough per click to be high enough up the page rankings to attract sufficient numbers of potential sellers.


What else can they do????