The automotive retail sector’s used car shortages “will stick with us” for some time to come but it is not altogether bad news, Auto Trader commercial director Ian Plummer has told the AM News Show.

Plummer suggested that the balance of demand would avert a slump in values as part of a wide-ranging interview which also questioned the impact of faltering online car sales providers on consumer confidence, the repercussions of an aging used car parc and car buyers’ desire to get the best of a digital and physical retail journey.

Asserting that Auto Trader data showed that car dealers were “not seeing a calamitous drop-off in demand”, despite the current cost-of-living crisis, he said that limited stock availability would continue to deliver strong margins.

And it is a trend that is set to continue. Plummer said: “A third of cars less are flowing into the two year, three year old parc. The year old parc is a year lower than it was pre-pandemic, because we didn’t build the cars. We can’t make a three-year-old car. So that problem is going to stay with us, and because it stays with us it’s almost a good thing because the market is driven more structurally today by supply issues than demand issues. Demand is still pretty healthy.”

AM Editor Tim Rose and news and features editor Tom Sharpe sat down with Auto Trader director Plummer for AM’s interview, the most recent in a series of podcasts recorded in partnership with Armchair Marketing.

Available via Youtube, the show’s recent guests include Suzuki GB director of automobile Dale Wyatt, Steven Eagell Group chief executive Steven Eagell, carwow chief executive James Hind and HR Owen chief technical officer Brett Ward.

In his interview Plummer spoke of how Auto Trader’s vast volume of data informs current vehicle pricing trends, gives insight into car buyers’ online behaviour, and helps retailers understand how they might best reach a target audience.

But despite the advances in online marketing being offered by the platform, and a ramp-up in car retail’s delivery of an online buying journey, he said most car buyers are still keen to engage with a retailer in-person.

“Giving consumers what they want means giving them the flexibility, the control, the chance to do more digital more of the time in combinations with the physical touchpoints that they want to enjoy,” said Plummer.

“Fundamentally cars are still a hugely emotional purchase, they’re obviously the second biggest purchase in the household barring the household itself, so we want to actually see the thing.

“We want to actually test drive it, all the more so if it’s an electric car because there’s an awful lot of growth in that area.

“We probably even want to smell it as well as touch it. It’s a tangible thing of great value to us and we enjoy it so we should carry on highlighting that physical side of car buying as well as the digital.”