Robust growth in consumer used car finance

New figures released by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show that new business in the point-of-sale (POS) consumer used car finance market grew 12% by value and 9% by volume in October, compared with the same month last year.

The POS consumer new car finance market also reported new business up 8% by value and 1% by volume in October.

The percentage of private new car sales financed by FLA members through the POS reached 86.3% in the twelve months to October, up from 86.2% in the twelve months to September.

Commenting on the figures, Geraldine Kilkelly, Head of Research and Chief Economist at the FLA, said “The performance of the POS consumer car finance market in recent months has been very much in line with industry expectations of broadly stable new business volumes in the new car sector, and single-digit growth in the used car sector.”

Table 1: Cars bought on finance by consumers through dealerships
New business	Oct 2016	% change on prev. year	3 months to Oct 2016	% change on prev. year	12 months to Oct 2016	% change on prev. year
New cars
Value of advances (£m)	1,350	+8	5,022	+9	17,924	+14
Number of cars	76,440	+1	287,234	+3	1,045,914	+9
Used cars
Value of advances (£m)	1,180	+12	3,546	+14	13,423	+13
Number of cars	107,449	+9	325,564	+12	1,247,770	+11

 

Table 2: Cars bought on finance by businesses
New business	Oct 2016	% change on prev. year	3 months to Oct 2016	% change on prev. year	12 months to Oct 2016	% change on prev. year
New cars
Number of cars	42,949	-14	121,548	-5	504,218	-1
Used cars
Number of cars	4,207	+30	11,524	+25	43,611	+14