Pre-reg pickings

At a recent Fleet and Finance sale, the trade’s indifference to pre-registered stock was somewhat alarming. Admittedly, the sale was just days before the arrival of the new 69-plate, but it did highlight that new car sales were more stagnant than normal over the summer. It seems only PCP incentives are moving the metal right now, with a flood of pre-reg cars out there.

Take VW’S T-ROC. These have come from nowhere to be everywhere. Their popularity makes you wonder if anyone is still buying Golfs. They’re not my cup of tea, but that only highlights how trendy they must be.

One I saw recently was a 1.0 petrol TSI in SE spec that had just been registered in July. It was finished in that undercoat white ‘colour’ which seems to be the height of fashion and the mileage was a nominal 1092. The cost new would have been at least £23,000 before any options. It sold for £17,100 + the Out, meaning depreciation worked out at more than £1000 per week for one of the hottest new cars on the market. Alarming or what?

Or how about a workmanlike Ford Focus 1.0 estate finished in fire-engine red and Titanium spec? This was the very latest shape of the Focus, slightly older than the T-ROC, being a 18/68, but still representing cutting edge technology in the one of the world’s best-selling cars. Mileage was again a nominal 1395 and it sold for £15,100 + the Out. Again, this car before options wouldn’t have given you much change from £23,000.

Whatever incentives manufacturers are offering to get you into a new car, can you really afford not to take a punt on a pre-reg example? Put it this way, how many payments would you make to match the level of depreciation I’ve just outlined above? I’m reliably informed the depreciation of nearly new subpremium SUVS is even more alarming.

‘Depreciation was more than £1000 per week’