USED CAR MARKET

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 299, 12 August 1932, Page 3

USED CAR MARKET

WELLINGTON TRADERS REPORT BRISKER TONE. ENGLISH MAKES WANTED. V/ELLIN GTON, Wednesday. Signs of an improvement in the | market for second-hand motor-cars has been notad by Wellington firms dealing with this class of business. An unsatisfied demand is reported for cars of a light type, and agents ai'e experiencing difflculty in fulfilling requirements. For the heavy models, with their higher running costs, there is not the same inquiry. "During the last week or so business in used cars seems to have brighbsned up a little," a Wellington agent said yesterday. It was surprising he continued, the large number of buyers who were paying cash. If the prices were right purchasers prefarred to pay spot cash and complete the transaction there and then. Not enough light cars had yet been sold in , New Zealand for sufficient of that type to be finding their way on. to the second-hand market to meet present requiremients. Price Fluctuation Small. The manager of the used car department of another firm said the present was the bad time of the ysar for the second-hand trade. Nevertheless, there had been a siight improvement lately, but as they approached the summer months there should be a bigger improvement still. The best deimand was for the light types of car, of which there was a shortage. The fluctuation in prices had been comparatively small. "It is harder to sell junk stuif than it used to be," he said. "At one time anything on four wheals could be disposed of. That is not the position to-day. Buyers are looking for something good. There is a prefcty keen demand for light trucks hy people going into soma small business. In many eases the purchasers are uncmployed people with a few pounds who are anxious to get into something that will provide them with a living. Buyers sjem to consist of two classes — those who want to make purchases on very easy terms and those who pay spot cash. One pays cash because he can afford it; the other wants to buy on easy terms because he cannot raise more than a few pounds. For some reason or other the intermediate type is not buying. Turn'ing English. According to one agent dealing in second-hand cars on a larga scale, the demand during the last montfi or so has been twice that of the period immediately preceding. There had been a definite improvement so far as the number of purchasers was concerned. In English cars there was a steady demand for models dating back to 1928. American open cars were not attracting buyers unless the prices were very cheap, but the more economical type of American saloon was selling well to travellers. The principal demand, however, was for light English cars. "There is no douht the car market in the Dominion is turning English," he added. "Cars that were pop/ular in 1928 and 1929 are the very opposite to-day, and appear to be nothing more than a drag on the market People change their ideas ahout cars just as a woman changes her views about clothes."