What’s hot?

New car sales are healthy in the UK market, which handily removes the pressure off most of mainland Europe, which continues to struggle.

The real driver behind the buoyant sales in the UK though is the outstanding deals on offer via finance, combined with pre-registrations.

With all the key prestige market players – Audi, BMW, Jaguar and Mercedes – wanting to gain further market share over the coming years, this landscape is set to stay for the mid-term.

Is it organic growth? Often not and for some car brands it may actually damage their brand image and residual values.

However if the past 20 years have taught me anything, it’s that new car registrations are the “holy grail” in the car world.

Jaguar – the XF has been a strong performer recently and the 3.0D models have been the sweetspot (particularly in Portfolio spec).

When the 2.2 diesel arrived, it was the engine to have in an XF and values between the two units closed to parity in many instances, making the 3.0 diesel look value. I expect the 3.0 diesel models to significantly outperform the 2.2 diesel over the next 12 months and re-establish a healthy premium.

Audi – the Audi Q3 has been on sale for some 18 months now and remains in its “honeymoon” period for value.

This is all helped by the fact that Audi is content not to push the model on the market – so don’t expect to find many special car finance deals or major discounts on the Q3 just yet.

Will this change going forward? Perhaps, but so far it’s been a model case of how to protect residual values, which is where a rapidly expanding and correctly executed “niche” product portfolio comes in handy.

What’s not?

Sat nav remains a key specification item on a prestige car, particularly for business owners buying the car privately to run on their business or for company car drivers with a healthy company car allowance.

However over the past five years some things have changed, namely the ubiquitous TomToms and other portable sat nav systems, along with smart phones, have become much better at providing effective guidance at a fraction of the cost of a standard fit sat nav system.