The latest new car and bike registration statistics tell their own story with a year on year reduction of 7.3% for all two wheelers compared with 30.9% for cars and 47.3% for vans. We believe some aspects of the current state of the economy are actually working to some extent in the bike market’s favour. For example, current interest rates are no incentive to save and therefore, not surprisingly, dealers are seeing more cash buyers than normal.

Dealers are reporting plenty of retail interest in used product and it may be a wise move for would-be buyers to get into the market sooner rather than later. This is because we expect used bikes to become more expensive during the course of the year, due to several factors. Top of the list is an expected reduction in supply. This is partly due to the low value of sterling sparking growing demand for bikes from the UK from abroad.

Numerous dealers are taking enquiries from Belgium, Holland and Germany, for example, and selling quite large numbers of units. The exodus of migrant workers from the UK is adding to this as many of them take their own bikes back to eastern Europe. In fact, it has also been noted that a number of Polish workers have been buying used bikes on a trade scale for some time, for export to their homeland where previously stunted new bike sales have resulted in used bike shortages today. New prices are also on the up, in the UK, which will also further steer attention toward the used market.

ends

An edited version of these comments can be seen in the published article, page 10 of the February edition of Motorcycle News.