Demand for used diesel vehicles has remained strong in March across key sectors, but petrol has declined.

Many SUV diesel values have either increased or stayed level, whereas their petrol counterparts have declined. Some examples of this are the Renault Kadjar, Renault Captur, Citroen C4 Cactus and Honda HR-V. Values also remained strong for diesel models in the Upper Medium sector.

Cap HPI’s head of current valuations Derren Martin (pictured) said: “Feedback from trade buyers is that there is little or no resistance from consumers to buying used diesel.

“Indeed, on average diesel values dropped by 0.7% in April’s Black Book live product, whereas petrol dropped by 0.9%.

"With over half the cars registered in 2015 and 2016 being diesel, it is important for values that this demand remains.”

Overall the moved edged down 0.8% at 3-years old and 60,000 miles against an average of 1.6% in the last five years. 

Values of hybrids declined more than other fuel-types in April.

“With uncertainty over new car registration volumes, many franchised dealers are focusing more on selling used vehicles and that is keeping the remarketing sector particularly competitive – during March and April that is more unusual than at other times of the year,” said Martin.

The values of electric cars have been more mixed. Tesla Model S and Golf E values have increased, while the BMW i3 now has increased used volumes available and values dropped by 3% during the month.

In the first quarter of 2018, the volume of electric cars within Cap sold car data is at almost 40% of that received in the whole of 2017.

Martin said: “Research completed by the Cap HPI black book editors reports that good percentages of cap were being achieved by leasing companies remarketing their vehicles through auction, with conversion rates also above where they would normally expect them to be in April.”

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