Brexit impacting two markets
The impact of Brexit has greatly affected two car markets. On one end of the spectrum, discounts on new cars are commonplace with scrappage schemes and deposit contributions, whilst on the other, in the used car market, prices are continuing to rise. The sales of new diesel engine cars slumped in 2017 and 2018, whilst prices for used diesels and particularly medium and larger diesel cars, rose.
Jonathan Brown, Car Editor at automotive intelligence provider Glass’s says that it became clear last year that drivers were sceptical of buying new diesels.
Brown believes the situation is only likely to get worse, even though new diesels are among the cleanest vehicles on the road. In January this year new diesel sales were 25% down on the same month last year.
Regardless of the decrease in sales, customers continue to buy older medium and larger diesel cars at auctions, for multiple reasons including: diesels are cheaper to run, longer service intervals, higher mileage per gallon on motorways than equivalent hybrid cars and much more.
