BRITISH motorists are snapping up new 69-plate cars for a fraction of the price only a month after they were released. Popular models from Audi, Land Rover and Mazda are being driven away at a discounted price, with some vehicles having 40 per cent knocked off its original price. A recent investigation by BuyaCar has […]
BRITISH motorists are snapping up new 69-plate cars for a fraction of the price only a month after they were released.
Popular models from Audi, Land Rover and Mazda are being driven away at a discounted price, with some vehicles having 40 per cent knocked off its original price.
A recent investigation by BuyaCar has revealed some dealers are pre-registering new cars with the 69-plates and selling them as second-hand models online in an attempt to meet sales targets.
Since its release on September 1, more than 500 cars with the 69-plates have been put up for sale at a discounted price on BuyaCar.com.
While the cars are being sold on the used market, they are effectively new vehicles and have barely clocked any miles.
The online retailer revealed buyers can save a combined £89,000 on the top ten biggest savers offered on their website.
The massive savings can be found on luxury vehicles like the £76,000 Audi A8, SUV models like the £18,000 Nissan Juke and city cars like the Volkswagen Up.
Austin Collins, managing director of BuyaCar, said: “There have always been opportunities to buy the latest plate at a discount in the months following a new plate launch, but in the past year they have begun appearing much sooner.
“The reason is that dealers make a substantial part of their profit from bonuses paid to them by manufacturers for meeting registration targets.
“That means the dealer can often afford to heavily discount the screen price because they have already earned most of their money by putting the car on the road.
“With an influx of pre-registered cars this soon after a new plate launch we expect the choice of bargains to grow substantially between now and the end of the year as dealers also come under pressure to store large volumes of stock and seek to clear them out.”
Earlier this year, we revealed the X-rated number plates British drivers can actually buy.
