FLA figures for February 2016
- New business advances through dealerships totalled £806m (up 27% year on year) on 51,207 new cars (up 22%)
- PCP accounted for 76% of new purchases (up 3%), and leasing up from 5% to 7% while HP fell from 21% to 16%
- Used car advances totalled £1,163m (up 23%) on 109,305 cars (up 18%).
- HP biggest method for used car purchases, proportion of deals down from 59% to 56% while PCP up from 34% to 39%
THE strength of the automotive industry and growing importance of the finance sector has been underlined by new car finance business up 27% year-on-year in February.
The latest figures released by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show that the point-of-sale consumer finance approaching £2 billion for the month on over 160,000 new and used cars.
Personal Contract Purchase showed increasing popularity, up 3% to 76% of the new car deals, while hire purchase dropped from 21% to 16%. In the used car sector HP dropped from 59% to 56% and PCP rose from 34% to 39% of purchases. See table below and our Business Car Finance section.
Overall the new car finance market saw new business grow 27% by value and 22% by volume in February, compared with the same month last year.
And for the first time ever the car finance market’s new business for the year passed the million mark, mostly with finance secured against the car.
FLA figures show that in February new business advances totalled £806m (up 27% year on year) on 51,207 new cars (up 22%) in new car finance, while used car advances totalled £1,163m on 109,305 cars.
The percentage of private new car sales financed by FLA members through the point-of-sale reached 81.9% in the 12 months to February 2016, up from 81.7% in the 12 months to January.
The point-of-sale consumer used car finance market also saw strong growth in February, with new business up 23% by value and 18% by volume.
Commenting on the figures, Geraldine Kilkelly, head of research and chief economist at the FLA, said: “February saw the point-of-sale consumer new car finance market report its twelfth consecutive month of growth in new business volumes.
“For the first time on record, annual new business volumes in this market surpassed the 1 million mark, with the majority of these purchased on finance secured against the car.”
Cars bought on finance by consumers through dealerships |
|||||
| New business | Feb 2016 | % change on prev. year | 3 months to Feb 2016 | % change on prev. year | 12 months to Feb 2016 |
| New cars | |||||
| Value of advances (£m) | 806 | +27 | 2,960 | +24 | 16,544 |
| Number of cars | 51,207 | +22 | 178,864 | +19 | 1,000,838 |
| Used cars | |||||
| Value of advances (£m) | 1,163 | +23 | 3,083 | +17 | 12,475 |
| Number of cars | 109,305 | +18 | 289,770 | +13 | 1,175,496 |
Cars bought on finance by businesses |
||||||
| New business | Feb 2016 | % change on prev. year |
3 months to Feb 2016 |
% change on prev. year |
12 months to Feb 2016 |
% change on prev. year |
| New cars | ||||||
| Number of cars | 29,966 | +17 | 102,257 | +2 | 512,241 | +7 |
| Used cars | ||||||
| Number of cars | 3,328 | +20 | 10,009 | +5 | 38,882 | -4 |
FLA Data – Breakdown of point-of-sale finance provided for car purchases
| New car finance – new business | Leasing | PCP | Hire Purchase | Personal Loans | Total Finance |
| 12 months to February 2015 | £655m | £10335m | £2893m | £218m | £14101m |
| % of total | 5% | 73% | 21% | 2% | |
| 12 months to February 2016 | £1159m | £12506m | £2608m | £271m | £16544m |
| % of total | 7% | 76% | 16% | 2% |
| Used car finance – new business | Leasing | PCP | Hire Purchase | Personal Loans | Total Finance |
| 12 months to February 2015 | £14m | £3647m | £6390m | £801m | £10852m |
| % of total | 0% | 34% | 59% | 7% | |
| 12 months to February 2016 | £12m | £4873m | £7019m | £571m | £12475m |
| % of total | 0% | 39% | 56% | 5% |
- In 2015, FLA members provided £110 billion of new finance to UK businesses and households.
- £81 billion of this was in the form of consumer credit, almost a third of total new consumer credit written in the UK in 2015.
- £37 billion of it supported the purchase of new and used cars, including over 80% of private new car registrations
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