What Price A Diesel?

[Mr Wolf]

Prior to buying my current Avensis towards the end of January this year I used the Auto Trader on-line valuation tool to obtain an idea of what I might get in part exchange value for my Kia Ceed diesel Sportswagon. I realised that any valuation provided was only a rough guide. As it turned out the Auto Trader part exchange value was not far away from the figure I was offered.

Over recent months, and before there have been plenty of reports in the motoring press etc etc that smaller diesel cars in particular are becoming less popular with buyers, and that more and more people are seeking petrol, hybrid or electric vehicles. Apparently, this has led to a surfeit of diesels on the used car market and has led to corresponding reduction in their values. (This was mentioned again in yesterday's Honest John Agony Column).

I wondered what depreciation my Kia had suffered, so with this in mind, I today repeated the Auto Trader on-line valuation and was astonished that today's part exchange value had dropped by a little over £2,500 in less than the 9 months since I sold it! No doubt there are lots of factors that might contribute to this scale of depreciation but it might also point to the fact that diesel car values are indeed really suffering. Whatever, I'm glad I changed to petrol when I did!