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Petrol RVs seeing gradual uplift, notes Glass’s

Residual values for petrol cars have seen a gradual uplift over the last year compared to their diesel counterparts, latest data from Glass’s suggests.

Vehicles waiting to be remarketed

Glass’s says recent visits by its editors to car auctions across the country supports suggestions of increasing interest in petrol variants.

According to car editor Jonathan Brown, recent trade observation data gathered by Glass’s on five-year-old C-segment retail sales show that over the course of the last three months, petrol values have reduced on average by £199, whilst diesel has reduced by £286.

The possible trend is more pronounced in Glass’s data for auction figures for younger cars (up to two years of age), which show that the average residual value of C-segment petrol cars as at March 2017 was £12,139 or 55.3% of original cost new price compared to diesels at £10,395 (49.5%). In March 2016, petrols were lower at £9,806 (52.9%) and diesels were higher at £10,565 (51.1%).

However, recent data published by both BCA and Aston Barclay indicates that diesel values remain positive with continued used buyer demand and more consistent prices compared to diesels.

Glass’s Jonathan Brown said its data backs up comments made over the past few weeks at dealerships around the UK that more customers appear to be out looking for a petrol car than has been the case in the past couple of years, although he noted that a single month’s figures must be viewed with some caution and also noted that the fleet industry and other high-mileage end-users may be reluctant to move away from diesels in the short term due to the perceived additional cost in fuel of running a petrol model.

The Glass’s RV figures come as recent JATO Dynamics figures show diesel new car registrations in Europe declined 15% in April, ensuring the fuel type has lost its dominance of the car market while latest SMMT new car registration data shows a 20.0% decline in overall diesel registrations in May, while the alternatively fuelled vehicle segment rose 46.7% and petrol registrations remained static, with a 0.4% rise.

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Natalie Middleton

Natalie has worked as a fleet journalist for over 20 years, previously as assistant editor on the former Company Car magazine before joining Fleet World in 2006. Prior to this, she worked on a range of B2B titles, including Insurance Age and Insurance Day.