The number of used diesel cars bought in Britain went up by 2% in the first quarter of 2018, in contrast to the 10.5% fall in demand for new oil-burning cars in the same period.
Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) figures show that a total of 2,031,661 used cars changed hands in the first three months of the year, representing a 4.8% decline on the same period in 2017. However, much of the fall can be attributed to used petrol cars, which saw a 9.7% decrease in demand.
Conversely, demand for second-hand alternatively fuelled vehicles grew 15.9% with 24,697 sales. Within this category, used electric cars saw a 33.8% increase to represent 2,927 units, while hybrids rose by 14.1%.
Top 10 best-selling cars in Britain
This helped push the market share for used alternatively fuelled vehicles up to 1.2%. Although petrol demand was down, it still accounted for 55.9% of the used market share, while diesel represented 42.8%.
SMMT boss Mike Hawes said: “Despite the overall decline in demand, the UK’s used car sector remains at a very high level and it’s great to see millions of consumers benefiting from some of the latest, safest and cleanest models now filtering into the market."
However, he warned that the current decline in the new car market could have a knock-on effect for used sales: "To maintain this choice and make the fastest possible improvements to air quality, we need stability in the new car market. That means giving consumers confidence to trade in their older cars for the best new, low-emission model to suit their needs — whatever the fuel type.”
UK new car market suffers biggest decline in Europe
The UK’s favourite new car, the Ford Fiesta, was also number one in the used car table for the first quarter. Sales of second-hand Fiestas totalled 92,569, beating the Ford Focus's 83,781 and the Vauxhall Corsa's 81,663.
British tastes for colour also changed in the first three months of the year, with black overtaking silver as the nation’s favourite used car colour. Blue, grey and white were the next favourites.
While superminis remained the best-selling used body type, dual-purpose vehicles (such as pick-ups) witnessed the fastest growth in the first quarter, with second-hand sales up by 12.8% to 206,500.
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Diesel sales
A. Dealers want these cars of their forecourt and
B. The tax band before April 1st 2017 will save drivers about £120
If a driver rarely goes into the CC zone then there isn't any extra cost to worry about and infact they are probably saving money over a new petrol. What I find disgraceful is the government hiking the tax band for petrol cars from April 1st 2017 when they are supposedly trying to get people out of diesel and into petrol. There is no real commitment or incentive by the government to get people out of their diesels and into modern petrol.Their main aim is just to make as much money as possible in the transition. You'd be surprised how many people are still happy to buy diesel cars when they only do about 6k per year in mostly town driving.
Money talking?
Are SMMT on the same planet as us?
Of course people will buy recent, cheap diesels: they can AFFORD them!
Many buyers have a 5-year horizon and it makes perfect sense at present to utilise that window to allow petrol to evolve further, for older smoky diesels to rust away and for died-in-the-wool electric fans to see some improvement in battery tech (all 3 000 of them)
It seems tha Autocar is doing the bidding of SMMT here in publishing their clearly biased claptrap... independence of thought, where have you gone?
Diesel
The bad publicity surrounding diesels is ill informed and outdated. Modern diesels are very much better for the environment than their petrol equivalent. They produce far less CO2 and use much less fuel meaning that not so much fossil fuel is used on any journey. Further more diesle tend to be more robust and longer lasting than petrol resulting in fewer needing to be scrapped and recycled. In my experience they have also proved to be far more reliable. The latest EU 6 compliant diesle are far better for the environment than a new petrol engine.Until electric cars have a realistic range of over 500 miles the diesel id the best option for the motorist and the planet. Bunny, and tree huggers need to get up to date with their predjudices as do the ignorant politicians whi have villified the diesel engine
Carmad3 wrote:
The bad publicity is aimed at local pollution, the particulates etc that are harming people by breathing in exhaust gases, in this diesels are worse, yes diesels produce lower co2 so can bee seen as better for the environment but this is countered by the pollutants we are breathing in. The point shouldnt be diesel is better than petrol or vice versa it should be about the correct fuel type for your usage, all the drivers doing city and town short distance driving in a diesel that never warms properly are harming the engine and its multitude of emission control systems as well as causing pollution, they would be better off with a small petrol or hybrid but the tax laws incentivised buying diesels. For people doing long distance driving a diesel is a no brainer though hybrids can be just as good. For many electric cars may be too pricey and cant necessarily be an only car.
As for the uptake of used diesels, surely it was obvious and inevitable, up until very recently most new cars were diesel due to tax incentives, therefore most of the cars on the used forecourts will be diesels. For some this might be the first opportunity to get a low tax car, I have only recently bought my first <£30 rfl car, as before they were too expensive or too small. I went hybrid.