Automotive profitability consultants, ASE, have confirmed that the average UK motor dealer saw a deterioration of over £9,000 on the profit made in January when compared to same month in 2014.

ASE highlight the practice of dealer self registration as an explanation for the evaporation of £9000 of profit in a month which saw registration statistics growing by 6.7% on January 2014. 

The consultancy reports used vehicle volumes being marginally up on January 2014.  However average profit per unit in this market has fallen below £1000.  ASE sound a note of concern: “We remain very concerned about the impact self registered cars are having on used car stock profiles with average stand in values rising in January as the cars registered in September 2014 enter mainstream stock available for sale.“

In the aftersales area ASE report service hours were static in January, but note a further improvement in overall efficiency in this area.

ASE return to the issue of self registration when considering their outlook for profitability the year to come: “A key indicator to 2015 financial results will be performance in the pivotal first quarter. Whilst we will produce an increased level of registrations it looks like this will be through fleet and self registrations and therefore at the expense of profit”