What’s hot and what’s not in the prestige car market – October 2013

What’s hot?

New car sales are healthy in the UK market, which handily removes the pressure off most of mainland Europe, which continues to struggle.

The real driver behind the buoyant sales in the UK though is the outstanding deals on offer via finance, combined with pre-registrations.

With all the key prestige market players – Audi, BMW, Jaguar and Mercedes – wanting to gain further market share over the coming years, this landscape is set to stay for the mid-term.

Is it organic growth? Often not and for some car brands it may actually damage their brand image and residual values.

However if the past 20 years have taught me anything, it’s that new car registrations are the “holy grail” in the car world.

Jaguar – the XF has been a strong performer recently and the 3.0D models have been the sweetspot (particularly in Portfolio spec).

When the 2.2 diesel arrived, it was the engine to have in an XF and values between the two units closed to parity in many instances, making the 3.0 diesel look value. I expect the 3.0 diesel models to significantly outperform the 2.2 diesel over the next 12 months and re-establish a healthy premium.