This is a “tradition” found in several other sectors of France: the art of negotiation. When you buy a new (or even a used) car, there are few transactions without a trade-in discount.

At some manufacturers, even before the stage of negotiations with the customer, dealers already apply discounts. This is generally part of the commercial plan of action, but can we really talk about negotiations without first having negotiations?

Commercial policies that vary by manufacturer

Still, in recent years, discounts were no longer necessarily legion at dealers. Then there were also the “new kids” who applied different commercial policies, without agreements.

This is, for example, at Tesla, which has never made discounts (with the rare exception of models in stock). The manufacturer prefers to manage his own prices with sometimes significant fluctuations. Since the Tesla purchase is online, without the seller in front of us, it is not possible to request a discount.

The policy is pretty much the same in MG, at least for MG4. The demand is so high, in particular thanks to the currently unbeatable quality/price ratio (even if the situation may change in 2024…), that dealers do not apply discounts.

A few months ago, there were no discounts even among the so-called “traditional” manufacturers. For what ? Because the demand was very high so that it is not necessary to encourage it by touching the margin of the product. In recent months, prices even had an upward trend.

Manufacturing and transportation issues have obviously contributed to this upward trend, but now that things are back to normal, lending rates have increased significantly and supply is greater. we are observing a small step back. Go figure, even Tesla is advertising now!

Rebates to stimulate demand

€2,000 on the Fiat 600e, €4,500 on the Jeep Renegade hybrid, 20% off the Ford Kuga, €7,200 on the Mustang Mach-E, €3,000 on the Peugeot e-208… The deals are back and it’s not because it’s Black Friday .

Indeed, the auto industry has just left something of an “exceptional” period. where there were more customers in the market than available vehicles. Today, manufacturers must “follow customers” and thus return to a more traditional system of commercial discounts and advertising.

Factories are running at full capacity again (except for some, due to lack of demand, etc.), but demand from motorists is falling. According to the first data for 2023 in 2023, the number of orders decreased by 12%..

To make matters worse, the environmental bonus is changing from 15 December and the prices of several electric cars, including the best-selling MG4 and Dacia Spring, will rise by €5,000 in 2024 due to their exclusion from the bonus scale. All explanations can be found in our special article.

A long-term trend? Not necessarily…

As we can see on the manufacturer’s websites, most promotions are aimed primarily at sell inventory of vehicles that will no longer receive a bonus in 2024.

At the same time, the current economic context does not necessarily encourage customers to spend big, while manufacturers are also paying for their strategy of recent years, when some believed that their pricing power there was a new deal.

Except that in reality, the auto industry, like the real estate market, was experiencing a sort of “post-prime bubble.” Today, the market is changing, so we are seeing lower prices, in particular due to the return of trade discounts.

Unfortunately, Some analysts believe that this phenomenon will only be episodic. Indeed, the long-term trend will undoubtedly be rising prices structural factors such as electrification and its dose of expensive technology for manufacturers obviously have to be outsourced.

And if you need a more concrete example, just look at the number of electric cars announced as “affordable” next year starting at €25,000 (not including the eco bonus).

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