New car sales at North West dealer hit by new emissions tests

Lookers

Sales of new cars fell by seven per cent at one of the country’s leading independent dealers.

Altrincham based Lookers issued a trading statement this morning which said the firm has continued to perform well in a difficult market.

The firm said trading was positive in the third quarter, against strong comparatives, with an encouraging result during the important month of September and with full year expectations unchanged.

The new car market suffered a volatile year with year-on-year reductions in most months, meaning that the market was down by 7.5% at the end of September.

Current industry forecasts by The Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders (SMMT) for the full year are now at 2.38m, a reduction of 6.3% compared to last year.

The UK new car market in September reduced by 20.5% compared to the prior year, having increased by 23.1% during August.

The main reason was a shortage in the supply of vehicles that had not been tested under the new WLTP emissions regulations, which became effective from September.

The statement from Lookers said: “Against this background, we are pleased to report a very respectable result for the important month of September, despite the challenges in the supply of new cars.

“We were able to mitigate the effect of the reduced volumes in the market and take advantage of this short supply by improving our margins on new cars across the quarter as a whole.

“We expect to see higher levels of vehicle sales in the final quarter with recent supply issues easing, as further vehicles pass through the new testing regime.”

Turnover and volumes of new cars reduced by seven per cent and total gross profit from new cars fell by five per cent.

The used car market continues to be buoyant and values remained stable and predictable in the period.

Turnover of used cars increased by 10% and gross profit from used cars increased by 10%.

In September Lookers acquired Jennings Group for £5.6m.

The Jennings Group is a long-established motor retail group in the North East of England with an excellent reputation and the acquisition cements Lookers position the region.

 

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