7:58 am, June 2, 2022
Used convertibles have seen a delayed start as the better weather has held off until later in the year, but there has been a shift in buyer desires as we near the midpoint of the year.
Changes in the market saw both the used city car and convertibles rise in value in May, while older cars began to drop in value.
Speaking to Cap HPI director of valuations Derren Martin, he explained how affordable cars are becoming more desirable but those under the most financial pressure may be choosing to hold off on purchasing.
He said: ‘We’ve seen city cars and convertibles both go up in value on average, for different reasons. You’ve got that lower end where they’re affordable cars and you’ve got people downsizing; we do hear about that going on. Maybe for their second car they’re opting for a city car rather than having two big cars.
‘With convertibles, I guess we’ve had some reasonable weather. They’ve not gone up quite as much as they have done in previous years or as early as in previous years.
‘Older cars are starting to come down now, more than they have done previously.
‘They’ve been outperforming younger cars but they are now under a little bit of pressure and maybe those people at the lower end are a little bit more affected by the cost of living so they’re not prepared to buy cars at the moment or pay the high prices of before.’
Martin added: ‘Within that sector we’ve also seen diesel prices come down. Buying a diesel car now maybe goes against the grain a little bit, the cost of diesel itself is expensive and you’ve got to do some miles really to make it worth your while.
‘We’ve now seen two months of diesel prices coming down more than petrol and electric cars so there’s definitely a theme there.’
In the used electric car market it continued to be a mixed picture, according to Cap HPI’s data, although with limited supply for new vehicles there have continued to be some success stories.
‘Electric cars are a bit mixed, actually,’ explained Martin. ‘We’ve seen Model 3 go up, by over four per cent, and we’ve seen Model S go down by four per cent.
‘The lead times are quite lengthy on a Model 3 now, they seem to be focussing their new car supply on Model Y, while Model 3 is more affordable and desirable so I think that’s why they’ve gone up. The Model S is more expensive and has not done quite so well.
‘It’s quite mixed in the electric sector but some of those smaller cars, for example Smart ForFour and the Honda e have both gone up by two or three per cent – and on the Honda e that’s more than £700 so there’s definitely a desire in the market to purchase electric vehicles.
‘A lot of that now is about whether you can get the new one, otherwise used becomes quite desirable. There’s not a lot of cars around in total, let alone electric vehicles.’
You can hear what the Cap HPI valuations boss had to say in full by clicking play on the video at the top of this page.
