There are a few 20-plate cars emerging. Take note of them. You'll not see many.
In these horrid times, buying a new car is hardly likely to be classed as essential unless, of course, you own a police car. It seems likely that these four, above, below right and the bottom two, were ordered before we knew of coronavirus; or before we realised exactly what impact it would have. After all, it's unlikely you can waltz into a showroom and pick up your perfect Audi off the peg. It probably needs ordering well in advance.
If you were to be fortunate enough to buy one, where would you use it and for what purpose? No, it's safe to say that 20-plate cars will be rare. We hear today that the Nissan factory in north east England is laying off tons of staff because no one's buying (and this on top of declining sales from 2017, in any case). One does wonder whether we'll be able to order 70-plate examples, too. Will we be out of the woods in August and, if we are, will there be sufficient stocks? Will we have recovered enough? When we get out of this—assuming we get out of this—there'll be much catching up to do.
The 20-plate registration period is likely to be much worse than the previous troughs, in the years 2009 to 2011.
Check out the examples of neat gardens in the two images above—the vast majority of gardens are looking rather tidy, orderly, trim and manicured. It's hardly surprising, though, as there's very little else to do. It's a form of exercise in the fresh air, too. Most gardens have never looked better.
Talking of gardening, we're swapping vegetable seeds with our elder son. It's a little way of trying to ensure food security in a difficult world. He lives elsewhere in Wales, so we do this by post. In the parcel, we've put in one of those rare 50p pieces for our daughter-in-law. We've wrapped the 50p in tin foil because of the concern that postal staff X-ray letters and filch the coinage they find. It's a different world, now, and I reckon that, if they are going to nick anything, they're more likely to take the seeds.
Update on May 5th: figures published today suggest that the sale of motor vehicles is down 97 per cent and is the lowest since 1946. This is apparently an already difficult time for vehicle sales when confidence was already very low.
One 20-plate car, right, is at county councillor Emrys Wynne's home. The poster in Wynne's window suggests he is Doing His Bit (update 3/4/20: a second notice has arrived)
If you were to be fortunate enough to buy one, where would you use it and for what purpose? No, it's safe to say that 20-plate cars will be rare. We hear today that the Nissan factory in north east England is laying off tons of staff because no one's buying (and this on top of declining sales from 2017, in any case). One does wonder whether we'll be able to order 70-plate examples, too. Will we be out of the woods in August and, if we are, will there be sufficient stocks? Will we have recovered enough? When we get out of this—assuming we get out of this—there'll be much catching up to do.
Check out the examples of neat gardens in the two images above—the vast majority of gardens are looking rather tidy, orderly, trim and manicured. It's hardly surprising, though, as there's very little else to do. It's a form of exercise in the fresh air, too. Most gardens have never looked better.
Update on May 5th: figures published today suggest that the sale of motor vehicles is down 97 per cent and is the lowest since 1946. This is apparently an already difficult time for vehicle sales when confidence was already very low.