Prospects for the UK car market remain bright, according to Peugeot UK’s managing director, Tim Zimmerman, speaking to just-auto.
The UK car market is up by 10% so far this year with the private retail part of the market up by 16% over last year.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
“The UK car market is being driven up by the buoyant retail sector,” Zimmerman said. “It’s a very competitive market, but not in the sense of widespread discounting on list prices. It’s more about offering value in packages with better equipment and specification to give the customer a better product and more for their money.”
Zimmerman is cautiously optimistic about the outlook for car sales in the UK. “The good thing is that the market is not being artificially stimulated,” he said. “It is genuine growth and we expect some growth to continue, though we don’t expect to see huge market growth in 2014. Like the SMMT, we’re cautious on next year. Much depends on exactly how the economy performs, but right now it is not looking too bad, particularly when compared to developments elsewhere in Europe.”
Zimmerman also said that a three-year change cycle linked to finance in the UK had helped to support volume. “We have been very good at persuading customers to change to new models that are better, more fuel efficient and to do that on a timetable that fits with their finance plans. It’s a pretty sustainable situation,” he said.
“The typical three-year new car ownership cycle for private buyers in Britain compares with ten years in Spain,” he added. “And we are getting people to change before the three years is up.”
