Diesel demand remains strong

The demand for diesel cars at auction remains high, according to research by Glass.

Hammer prices at auction have been generally strong so far this year, regardless of fuel type. This has led to Glass’s values remaining reasonably stable, to strengthen throughout quarter one in the ‘Lower Medium’ segment.

This segment has an equal split of petrol and diesel sales and contains popular volume models such as the Ford Focus. Petrol models have been outperforming diesel, but rather than suffering a significant downturn in values, diesel has remained consistent.

A similar pattern has emerged in the ‘Premium Upper Medium’ segment which includes models that are popular with fleet operators, such as the Audi A4, and Mercedes C-Class. Throughout 2017 the gap between diesel and petrol widened with average diesel residual values reducing by around one per cent.

However, diesel cars in the ‘Premium Upper Medium’ segment converted at a slightly faster rate than petrol in February and March this year. That said petrol models had the upper hand for much of last year. It could be possible that petrol values are beginning to reach a ceiling in this segment.

Over the past 12 month’s petrol models have consistently outperformed diesel in virtually all segments. As an example, when considering the ‘Supermini’ segment that contains high volume models such as the Ford Fiesta, petrol outperforms diesel.