Auction conversion rates fall as buyers wait

Auction house Aston Barclay said conversion rates of between 35 and 45 per cent have been "typical" over the past few weeks with reserves often "a few hundred pounds higher" than the market is prepared to pay for ex-fleet stock.

"Recently we identified a two year old Network Q approved Astra sitting on a dealer's forecourt at the same price a vendor was expecting a trader to pay at auction for an identical car," it said.

The price guides have responded to the falling market with Cap cutting values by 4 per cent in its June issue and Glass's by 2 per cent.

Last week Cap was accused of overvaluing some used cars by up to 10 per cent by Auction4Cars, the online auctioneer.

It claimed average used car values have fallen by eight per cent from January to May to £2,754.

Aston Barclay said: "We always aim to sell cars first time in a falling market.

"Holding the car back for a few weeks before putting it into auction again to achieve 100 per cent of CAP Clean, when the book price falls, is a false economy.

"It can lead to the vendor receiving £300 less than the first time it went under the hammer," said Barry Watts, operations director of Aston Barclay Group.

"Low conversion rates cause vendors an additional headache as the number of unsold cars can mount up week after week, making them unable to turn used assets into cash," he added.

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clifford owen simpson said:

... I couldn`t agree more with your article. The number of fleet cars in auctions in indifferent colours with one key ,no history, badly repaired bodywork, mechanically unsound, scruffy trim, wheels and tyres requiring refurb and requiring fairly major body repairs seems to have reached an all time high. Yet all we here from the auctioneer is `CAP clean` is such and such a figure and in most cases this is what the vendor is looking for. Some of them should abandon the rostrum for a day and see how pernickety Joe Punter is even when spending a couple of thousand quid. How can you attribute a CAP figure to an HP repo at a specific mileage when that car has no history and is being sold not warranted mileage?

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June 07, 2010
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