James Ruppert
Pre-registration means big savings
As we all know, new car registration figures are not exactly reliable. I sometimes wonder whether they’re plucked out of a machine like the lottery numbers. However, what the figures are very useful for is identifying some general trends within the market.
For example, when the number of new cars sold in the UK falls for the sixth consecutive month, as it did in September, we can be certain that a pattern is emerging. Even more significant in the September figures was that sales were down 9.3% compared with the same month in 2016. That is significant because what is supposed to be the boom month is down. It’s the first time in six years that has happened.
There are several reasons for it. One is clearly the fact that there are too many new cars for too few buyers. Some dealers might pre-register new cars to take up the slack, except that it would be embarrassing to register such a large number of motors to cover the shortfall in actual sales.
I looked back through my records and in the depressed early 1990s there were pre-registered Porsche 928s and you could get £15k off. Pre-registered, delivery-mile motors count as used cars and it is the best way to get a showroom-fresh, predepreciated set of wheels for less.
Is it at all possible to get anything as remotely interesting as a nearly new 928 in 2017? I doubt it. There are low-mileage cars for sale in Porsche showrooms, but they are all Macans and Panameras loaded with kit, and extracting what the true retail price should be isn’t straightforward.
You can always rely on Jaguar to deliver value and the starting price of £28,295 for an XE is fairly easy to beat. Indeed, an R-sport 2.0 diesel is supposed to be £34,565, but I found one with the optional Black Pack (worth £530) at a main agent for £25,990. That has to be the starting point for haggling down to £25k.
Of course, the bigger the Jaguar, the bigger the savings, so let’s trade up to an XF saloon. Again, an R-sport variant tips the scales at £38,565. However, a main agent has a 16-plate example that could be yours for £27,590.
There are loads of pre-registered Alfa Romeos to choose from. How about a pretty Giulia Super 2.2 turbo diesel with five miles on the clock at £24,995? It is a 177bhp version, which is usually £33,315.
There are savings on Maserati Ghibli diesels, which have a starting price £50,175. Some dealers have them at just under £48k with delivery miles. That’s not bad for a 3.0 V6 that can sprint from 0-62mph in 6.3sec but still return 47.9mpg.
Pre-registration, then: it makes divining new car sales figures hard, but it can be fun for car shoppers.
There are too many new cars for too few buyers