Recovery In The Car Market Leads To Falling Discounts

2023 Author: Eric Donovan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-08-25 09:36

The car market in Germany has recovered. Customers are in the mood to buy again. Accordingly, the discount level has fallen again for the first time in five months.

The economic upturn in Germany is now also leading to an improvement in the German car market. According to the current Car Discount Index of the University of Duisburg-Essen, the discount level in Germany is still at a high level, but has fallen slightly for the first time in five months.

As car expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer and co-author Karsten Neuberger noted, both the sales promotion campaigns and the manufacturers' own registration rates declined in April. The declining car discount index is an indication that the stable overall economy has now also reached the new car market.

In April, the authors found only 374 manufacturer campaigns, 28 fewer than in March. However, the customer benefit of these campaigns rose slightly from eleven to 11.4 percent. "In particular, the trend of the last few months to win more customers with offers with direct discounts and used car overpayments has stopped. These offers are currently no longer advertised at Citroen, Daihatsu, Ford and Toyota," says the study.

Citroen C5 with 5200 euros price advantage

In April, for example, zero percent financing for the C1, C3, C3-Picasso, C4, C4-Picasso and C5 was offered for the Citroen “Love Selection”. For the customer this resulted in a discount of between 2300 euros for the C1 and 5200 euros for the C5. Fiat also offered zero percent special financing if half of the purchase price is paid immediately and the second half in two years. This offer applies to the Bravo, Doblo, Punto, Qubo and Sedici. Here, the interest savings are between 1800 euros for the Punto and almost 3000 euros for the Doblo.

There were also other offers for special models. For example, Mercedes offers the “Dynamics with a Star” offer. Here, 2.5 percent financing over 36 months is offered for the C, E, GLK, SLK and Viano classes. For the customer, this means an interest saving of 2500 euros for the C-Class and around 3800 euros for the E-Class.

Opel offers special leasing for Astra GTC

The Rüsselsheim-based car maker Opel is also trying to promote sales of its models through special leasing. The Opel Astra GTC can be leased for a term of three years and an annual mileage of 10,000 kilometers and a special payment of 1985 euros for a monthly rate of 129 euros. That means a customer benefit of 5149 euros or 25.8 percent. According to the study, Opel offers the highest discounts among German manufacturers.

According to the study, Opel offered a total of 23 direct sales promotion campaigns, VW 21 and Ford offered 17 campaigns. Internet dealers also sell an Opel with the highest discounts among German car manufacturers. For the Astra there was a saving of 29.3 percent, only for the Fiat Punkto with 31.8 percent there was a higher discount. Big discounts are also available for the Ford Focus with a 21.3 percent discount and for the VW Golf a 20.4 percent discount can be achieved. The average

discount level at Internet retailers remained almost unchanged compared to the previous month at 17.7 percent. (AG / FM)