According to Aston Barclay’s 2017 Market Insights report, UK trade buyers as well as retail customers are still very much in the mood for purchasing used diesel-powered cars.
On average, auction prices for diesels have increased by £601 since 2016, reaching £8,829 on Q4 of 2017. Meanwhile, former fleet diesels are on a two-year high rising by 11.4% to £10,076. A drop in average age and mileage to 41.1 months/54,415 miles has also been registered.
With petrol cars, prices increased only by £426 to £4,011 from Q1 of 2016 to Q4 of 2017. Ex-fleet petrol units stagnated over a 24-month period at roughly £7,250.
“2017 delivered a stable used car market, with diesel demand and prices remaining strong,” stated Aston Barclay exec, Martin Potter. “The continued fall in new car sales will see fewer dealer part exchanges entering the used market in 2018. However, higher used car volumes are likely to balance this shortfall as stock comes back from the peak new car sales years of 2013 and 2014.”
Part of the reason why the used car market took a dip in Q2 of 2017 was due to dealers pushing new car sales into March because of April 1st VED changes, leading to trade buyers having more used stock choices in April and May. Prices then picked up again in Q4.
As for Alternative Fueled Vehicles (AFVs), their volume is slowly growing at auctions, and the fact that they tend to have higher average mileage compared to diesels (64,700 vs 54,415) shows that people use them as they would any other car, rather than just to get around within town.