are expected to find values still falling

Used car prices rose marginally in January but some electric cars lost more than £5,000 in value.

New data from Cap HPI said that despite widespread concerns January would be affected by ongoing cost-of-living concerns, dealers had experienced a strong month for used car sales, with one reporting January was ‘surprisingly buoyant’.

Average trade values at the threeyear/60,000-mile mark rose by 0.1 per cent, driven mostly by strengthening values of petrol and diesel cars.

Cap HPI’s director of valuations, Derren Martin, told us: ‘I think there was a bit of trepidation going into January about how the market would be.

‘Dealers weren’t stocking up in December and they were being pretty wary.

‘For petrol and diesel cars, it’s felt like a pretty normal January, if there is such a thing.

‘The retail world is very healthy, and from the first weekend of the month, dealers were

Luscombe Motors

busy and were then replenishing sold stock.’

Cost-of-living concerns and rail strikes possibly resulted in the sub-£15,000 sector being very strong in January, and cars costing £8,000 and less were ‘even stronger’.

Martin revealed that the month could have been as much as 0.5 per cent up on January 2022 if used electric vehicle prices hadn’t acted as an anchor.

EVs saw a ‘dramatic’ decline in January, dropping on average by 6.6 per cent or around £2,050, he said.

Looking ahead to February, Martin said Cap HPI was forecasting a ‘small upwards movement’ on used car prices, with dealers expected to continue buying petrol and diesel cars in good numbers.

‘I think electric vehicles will continue to come down, though – not all of them, but many of them.

‘It probably won’t be to the same degree as January, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some four-figure drops,’ he said.

Dealers defenceless against ‘industry of fraudsters’

Data protection rules have created an ‘industry of fraudsters and scammers’ and it’s impossible for dealers to be completely protected, Robin Luscombe has said.

The Luscombe Motors boss said it was unfair that dealers such as Arnold Clark were criticised when targeted by hackers. The Car Dealer Used Car Awards 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award winner said companies were powerless to stop cyber criminals from hacking their websites.

He also called for more understanding from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) when dishing out fines to firms that have suffered data breaches. The 61-year-old said: ‘Through GDPR rules, we’ve actually created an industry of fraudsters and scammers.’

He added: ‘I think we need a different approach, because it’s not the dealer’s fault if he’s taken reasonable steps to make his data secure and then gets fined by the ICO for a data breach.’

Robin Luscombe