New car sales in Germany dropped by 11 per cent in September with pre-reg cars accounting for over a third of all sales.
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That drop of 11 per cent in Germany is despite deep discount offers – an average of 12.2 per cent in September – with even the previously invincible Mercedes and VW having to offer discounts of up to €3k, despite which VW’s sales fell by 20 per cent in Germany and Mercedes by 12 per cent.
What’s perhaps most interesting about the decline in car sales in Germany is the number of pre-reg cars sold (pre reg cars are cars registered by dealers to hit sales targets and then sold at a discount of up to 25 per cent).
We reported recently that up to a third of UK new car sales are actually pre-reg and that new car list prices and sales are being skewed by the practice, a practice that seems to be growing in Germany as well as the UK.
If you factor in the pre-reg sales, fleet sales and discounted sales it looks like only a small fraction of new car sales are at the list price.
Perhaps it’s time for car makes to bite the proverbial bullet, stop pre-reg and fleet discounts and simply offer their cars at 20 per cent less than they currently do – just as Nissan has with the new Micra?
Wouldn’t that get more punters through the showroom?
Oblivious says
That has to make sense. If car prices were fixed across the board so fleet buyers got no discounts from any car maker and dealer bonuses were only paid on end user registrations then it can’t be far off 20% off list to balance the books. But that would take legislation to make it happen – which just won’t happen. Either that or a mass breakout of sense from ALL car makers.