BANDON, Ore. — Bad weather in February hurt used-vehicle sales, but independent and private party sales were hurt the most, CNW Research reported this week.
Used-vehicle sales in February totaled 2.055 million units, down 1.3% from the year-ago period and more than 12% from January. Sales for franchised and independent dealers were off 2.46% and 2.15%, respectively, from a year ago. However, the selling environment wasn’t all that bad for franchised dealers.
“With a richer mix of inventory as well as a strong CPO market, franchised dealers were able to score a 6.1% increase in the value of vehicles sold compared to last year,” the firm noted. “Independents weren’t so fortunate, seeing the value of vehicle sold fall 4.3%.”
CNW noted that private party sales realized a 12.65% increase in the value of vehicles sold vs. a year ago and 16.5% vs. January.
In all, there were 2.3 shoppers for every buyer in February, down 2.67% in January. Additionally, the firm found the number of subprime buyers fell 21.43% vs. one year ago. The number of buy-here, pay-here customers also fell, dropping 16.7% vs. one year ago.
“Bad weather did deter many of those shoppers from searching outside of their market area for a used vehicle,” state CNW. “The share of buyers who bought within their marketing area climbed 18% compared to February 2013.”
