In December, incoming orders at most car dealerships fell back to the previous year's poor level. The sector index for brand-bound companies fell from 106 points in November to 81 in December. At the beginning of last year, the German government stopped the impending slump in the automotive industry with the scrapping bonus and, thanks to the state subsidy, brought the new car trade a registration result of more than 3.8 million cars. However, the subsidy pot was already exhausted by the beginning of September.



Economic low hits premium brands in particular

The economic high has now been followed by a low: around a third of authorized dealers rate the current economic situation in the automotive industry as "poor" and only 12 percent as "good". In addition, 55 percent report that their sales in the new car business last month were lower than in the same period last year. Car dealerships selling German premium brands were hit particularly hard. As many as two thirds of them registered falling revenues. Around 60 percent of those surveyed also forecast a decline in sales of new cars for the coming month.



"Looking at the figures, 2009 was extremely successful with an increase in sales of around 23 percent and more than 3.8 million new registrations. However, the result was influenced by the environmental bonus - the dealers did not achieve this on their own, but mainly through government support measures," comments Dr. Hermann Frohnhaus, Spokesman of the Board of the Bank Deutsches Kraftfahrzeuggewerbe. Now we are back to 'everyday life', with forecasts that are less encouraging and will present the industry with numerous challenges, adds Frohnhaus.



Long downtimes and depreciation of used cars

The dealerships are also concerned about the continuing high downtimes and loss of value in the used car business. Every second respondent stated that their turnover from the sale of second-hand cars in the previous month was lower than in the previous year. The assessment of future sales development also looks bleak: Only five percent of used car dealers expect sales to rise in the coming month and 56 percent expect sales to fall.



Further details and the BIX archive can be found on the Internet at www.kfz-betrieb.de/branchenindex.



"kfz-betrieb" is the most widely read trade magazine in the automotive industry and has been informing the automotive trade and service sector for 99 years. "kfz-betrieb" is the official organ of the German Motor Vehicle Trade (ZDK), the professional interest group for around 40,000 car dealerships and workshops. Daily news from the entire automotive industry is available at www.kfz-betrieb.de and in the daily newsletter. The parent company Vogel Business Media is one of the leading German providers of specialist information with around 100 trade journals and 60 websites as well as numerous international activities. Its headquarters are in Würzburg.