More than half of dealers (53%), an increase from 34% in February, have said consumer confidence is up. This Startline Used Car Tracker data was based on 302 consumers and 58 dealers.
The percentage of dealers who believe the state of the economy is better has also improved from 21% last month to 24% now.
Paul Burgess, CEO at Startline Motor Finance, said: “The dealers we spoke to this month clearly feel that there has been a strong uplift in used car buyer sentiment for this month, which is a very positive finding, especially alongside their slight improvement in the perception of the economy.
“The question is whether this marks a welcome shift in consumer confidence for the longer term or is effectively just a blip in the data, and it’ll be interesting to see the results of our research during the next few months.”
However, the number of dealers who said the used car market was improving fell from 59% in February to 55% now, optimism surrounding EVs fell from 48% to 45%, and feelings on stock supply was unchanged at 45%.
Startline found 69% of dealers felt positive about the used car market, down from 72% in February, while 10% held negative views.
Burgess said: “There’s a mixed message coming through here in our findings – dealers might believe that consumer confidence is up but they’re not correspondingly positive about the used car market overall.
“Our feeling is that there are a range of issues at play here – from the forthcoming impact of higher National Insurance costs and increased minimum wage to the uncertainty surrounding the Zero Emissions Vehicle Mandate and electrification in general.
“All of these are to an extent weighing down on the general mood of dealers.”
