New car prices under pressure: discounts continue to soar

U m 17.4 percent are the private new registrations in September compared to the In the same month last year, market observers from Dataforce report. The crisis in Europe has arrived in Germany - manufacturers and retailers no longer know what to do with new cars.

Of 250,000 new registrations in September, you registered around a third on yourself. So they look for their salvation in tactical approvals. The car manufacturers are also responding with cheap financing, including subsidized extras such as vehicle insurance, maintenance contracts and extended warranties.

The trade is banking on discounts for new vehicles. The average discount here is 19 percent, as one of our samples showed. However, the offers differ greatly depending on the model and the selected equipment. The highest discount is currently available at 34 percent on the Opel Zafira Family Plus - an increase of three percent compared to the first quarter of 2012.

Premium new cars not spared discounts

But premium models too like the BMW 525d are available at high discounts: at a list price of 45,800 euros, the discount of 18 percent means a saving of around 8,500 euros. 'This is a clear signal that the market is stagnating,' explains Ulrich Köster from the Central Association of the German Motor Vehicle Industry.

Even market leader VW is feeling this, as it has corrected its annual forecast for 2012 downwards. 'Manufacturers and retailers are trying to create incentives to buy,' says Köster. Even the recently introduced Golf VII is available as a Trendline with a 17 percent discount - just like its predecessor, which was built in parallel until the end of 2012. But there are also some models for which the possible discounts have fallen, such as Smart Fortwo or Toyota Yaris.

What is certain is that the weaker-selling manufacturers have to act. The already unstable market gets into a downward spiral in which there is only one winner: While car manufacturers and retailers are desperately fighting for customers, they can choose from an ever increasing number of attractive offers.