Online used car dealership Carspring has found that the UK new car market is the second-quickest depreciating in the world. It’s good news for used car buyers here, who are able to pick up the average 34,700-mile car for around 51.90% less than its ‘new’ value. Only New Zealand provides better value for those looking to buy a used car, with Carspring calculating used cars will have lost 53.67% in value after 34,700 miles.
Measuring used cars for sale in the UK’s five biggest cities, both online and at bricks and mortar retailers, Carspring also found which brands are quickest to lose value and which are slowest. Taking the top five models from each brand, Carspring discovered that Toyota models lost the most value, at 74.59%, with Peugeot and Honda following behind with 70.19% and 65.94% respectively. The British-built MINI line-up, Audi and Volkswagen models all held their value best.
Carspring’s Co-founder Maximilian Vollenbroich said: “Our data shows that the United Kingdom is very much a second-hand-buyers’ market. There’s a huge amount of choice, driving down prices by more than 70% in some cases on cars that have covered just under 35,000 miles – with the reliability of modern cars, that’s almost good-as-new.”
Carspring also put together a Global Used Car Price Index, taking into account currency valuations, VAT and tariffs among others, in which the United Kingdom also finished second, just behind America. In contrast, Singapore – which levies huge taxes on new cars – is the most expensive country for buying a used car, closely followed by Denmark, Norway and Finland.
