The Vehicle Remarketing Association believes the motor industry needs to educate used car buyers about the differences between “good” and “bad” diesels when it comes to emissions.

At last week’s meeting of the trade organisation – which represents companies that are involved in remarketing more than 1.5 million vehicles every year – there was a detailed discussion of the topic including presentations from the National Franchise Dealer Association and Cap HPI.

Glenn Sturley, chair at the VRA, said: “Roughly, the diesel car parc can be divided into Euro 3 and Euro 4, which no longer meet the kinds of emissions standards that are considered acceptable, and Euro 5 and Euro 6, which are some of the cleanest cars available in terms of CO2, NOx and particulates.

“Effectively, this means that the market divides into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ diesels and we believe that much more could and should be done to educate consumers on the difference between the two.

“This responsibility falls to everyone from organisations like the VRA to manufacturers to dealers and others.”

Sturley stated that there are a lot of misconceptions circulating among used car buyers about diesel, often prompted by some poorly researched journalism in the national press.

“We are in a situation where some consumers are starting to identify diesel as undesirable from an air quality and emissions point of view, and starting to avoid them. Evidence shows that most are switching to petrol, which has its own emissions issues.

“As anyone working in the industry knows, this is a trend that makes little sense. Newer diesels are some of the cleanest cars available, especially in real world terms, and stigmatising them could actually hamper general efforts to improve air quality,” he said.

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