Medium sized cars hold popularity
The non-premium, medium sized car segment remains very popular with car buyers.
Some of the UK’s most popular cars sit within the medium sized segment, the Ford Focus, Volkswagen Golf and Vauxhall Astra. These three models alone account for more than half of the segment’s volume. Better than most, this segment has survived the rigours of change and has shown resilience, despite the emergence of the hugely popular C-SUV sector.
At 3 years and 36,000 miles, Glass’s Trade data shows the very best residual value performers are the petrol variants of the Volkswagen Golf that retain around 50% of its original cost new price. The diesel variants perform less well, due to the high volumes that are part of the new car sales success. As expected, over the past 24 months, petrol models have improved its residual value positioning whereas diesel shows slight decline.
Interestingly, the 2015 registration volumes for some models were heavily in favour of petrol variants, such as the Nissan Note and Vauxhall Astra, whereas others, such offerings from German, French and Korean manufacturers were weighted towards diesel.
