Pre-registration activity sees ‘new’ cars discounted by more than 40%

Dealers are advertising brand-new 70-plate cars at used car prices in order to hit their registrations targets, finds online car supermarket BuyaCar.

Discounts of up to 41% on brand new cars being sold as ‘used’ have been identified by the platform, highlighting the desperation of retailers to earn their bonuses during a challenging month.

“Dealers always offer discounts on new cars that have been registered to meet targets and run by staff or used as demonstrators, but this year discounts are appearing in substantial numbers especially early,” said Christofer Lloyd, editor of BuyaCar.co.uk. 

“We are offering some remarkable savings on the new price and some of these cars have as little as five or 10 miles on the clock with savings of almost a third.”

BuyaCar, which specialises in used cars, forecast several weeks ago that it expected to be able to offer 70-plate cars as early as September, thanks to unprecedentedly tough conditions for manufacturers and their dealers this year.

Savings ranging from £6,072 to £29,910 are already available on the 10 models with the biggest savings – with a week of September still to go. These represent savings of between 28.6% and 41.3%.  

Buyers can pick up an Audi A8 for £42,400, a saving of almost £30,000 off the list price. It is also possible to buy a brand new pre-registered Skoda Octavia for as little as £14,963.

The new car market fell by 5.8% in August, but private demand remained steady to absorb the majority of losses that came from business and fleet registrations.

Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said that while the decline is disappointing compared with the brief optimism from July's 11.3% increase, August is typically one of the new car market’s quietest months.

Overall, registrations remain down by 39.7% in the year to date, some 600,000 units behind this time in 2019, following coronavirus enforced lockdowns.

BuyaCar top-10 pre-reg savings: