Supply types

At buyacar we are always on the look out for the latest deals on the newest cars available across the country, which we do by building relationships with dealers across the whole of the UK

Due to the thousands of different variations of each type of car you can buy it's difficult for each manufacturer to pre-build every possible combination of options someone might choose. So, each of the car manufacturers will build a number of cars to a 'popular' specification and most of the rest will be built on demand.

Typically those cars that are really popular will be built in vast numbers and therefore you are more likely to be able to find one that has already been built, however cars that are more unique, where you have chosen a lot of options will most likely have to be built on demand

DIFFERENT SUPPLY TYPES

Most new cars bought in the UK will be built on demand from the factory. A customer will choose their specification - exterior colour, interior colour, options and it will be built on demand - this is called a 'factory order'.

Because you have ordered the car from scratch, the chances are that you will be the first owner of this car. This means your name will be the first one on the log book and when you come to sell the car your name will be the only one there - this is called 1st Registered.

If a car has already been built then it will be delivered to a dealer's stock centre - at this point the car's specification has already been chosen by someone else and is therefore set, but as it has already been built it is available a lot sooner - this is called a 'stock car'.

There may be a number of stock vehicles available that match your broad specification - it makes sense to consider a stock vehicle purely because you will have to wait far less time, however dealers will try to avoid having unsold stock because they don't want to have money tied up in a car that could be sitting waiting for a while. As a result stock cars tend to be a little cheaper...

In the case of a stock car, because the new car has already been specified there's a good chance that the car may already have been owned by someone else. Despite this, the car still will not have been used by anyone, they may simply have ordered it before you. An example of when this happens is when a dealership pre-orders a popular car in order to reduce the number of weeks a customer will have to wait - this is called a 'pre-registered car'.

Buyacar tries to offer you as broad a range of choice as possible - our aim is to get the closest match to your needs as we can. So, we display these different types of new cars to you, giving you the ability to choose which one suits you best.

There may be other aspects to the supply of the car that you will need to be aware of, but these will always be explained to you in advance of you making a choice - we are here to match what is available in the UK to your personal circumstances so please let our sales advisors know as much as possible about what you're looking for.

If you have any other questions about how our new cars are supplied please take a look at the other articles in this section about buyacar, or call us on our main switchboard number.