Two Months Of Record Wet Weather And The Inexplicable Link To Used Car Sales? The Ever Seducing Sunny Day

It may seem like common sense, or it may just be put down to one of those weird phenomenas that car sales are inexplicably linked to the weather. Britain, especially the South Coast has experienced 2 months of record rainfall, with over 32cm of rain, double the average of previous years, and 40% of average annual rainfall in just 8 weeks. You can bet that on a rainy day, the phone won't ring, yet as soon as the sun comes out, it lights up like a Christmas tree.

Whist retail sales are generally 'dampened' by poor weather, and Britain's biggest motoring supplier Halfords actually revised down their profit forecast, most customers who approach Coopers of Hampshire are looking for another car through need more than want. So, it seems to figure that sales shouldn't really be affected by the weather, right?

We can all reason away why you might or might not want to view a vehicle - from wanting to see dry bodywork to spot imperfections, to wanting to see a vehicle in the rain to make sure there are no moisture ingress issues, to just not wanting to go outside and risk that expensive hair-do. But is there some science behind it?

In comes Human Psychology and Behavioural Economics - Weather Sensitivity and the seduction of a sunny day.

Standard economic models assume that people rationally weigh the long-term costs and benefits of a major purchase: MPG, maintenance costs, and safety ratings, coupled with their requirements of a vehicle. A consumer making a wholly rational decision about buying a car should be just as likely to buy one on a rainy day as a sunny one. But what happens in reality?

Yes, there is such thing as a 'Weather Sensitivity Index' otherwise known as WS, which each and every one of us have an attributed score. Consumers who are high in WS tend to respond to such weather-related purchases more significantly than those with a lower index. And in fact, the majority of the people in the study had a high WS.

Those who have high WS are also likely to have high 'projection bias', otherwise known as self-forecasting error, where individuals overestimate or underestimate how their future selves will value, allowing the weather to influence a shorter term purchasing decision. In Pope's study in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, they found an increase in temperature translated to an 8.5% increase in convertibles sold. In the 2 to 3 weeks following poor weather and major storms, the percentage of four-wheel-drive vehicles sold increased by 6%. Even just clear sunny skies also increased sales by about the same amount.

From speaking with one of our warranty suppliers and other motor trade professionals, the general consensus was that motor industry throughput dropped by around one third.

So there you go, car sales really are impacted by the predictable science of human behaviour. If considering a new vehicle, why don't you challenge your own Weather Sensitivity? At Coopers of Hampshire, we encourage our buyers to enquire irrespective of weather conditions - you can always arrange to view a vehicle on a dry day or even inside our on-site workshop (space permitting of course).

Coopers of Hampshire are an automatic vehicle specialist based just outside Southampton in Ower. All of our vehicles are 115-point inspected and include body condition reports, and unless otherwise stated, include a minimum 3 months warranty. We are a registered company in England, number 14416644. We are VAT registered, number 451375008. We are Accredited by the Motor Ombudsman, the UK’s government-backed, self-regulatory body for the motor industry, registration number 23439.