What do all these discounts, reductions and offers mean for future residual values? “The best way to look at it is to compare the effective purchase price of the new car with the price of its nearly new equivalent with delivery mileage,” answers Dylan Setterfield, head of forecast strategy at automotive data provider Cap HPI. “If the new car is cheaper than the used one, it’s going to be extremely difficult to sell used cars at existing prices and used values will almost certainly reduce. However, in many cases, different finance deals can confuse the issue, as many buyers base their purchase decision on monthly payments, rather than the vehicle’s purchase price.”
Regarding EVs, Setterfield says the massive discounts on new ones are unlikely to depress the values of used ones which have already fallen a long way: “But we now have the further complication of the new government Electric Car Grant. The Ford Puma Gen-E is among the first vehicles attracting the maximum £3750 level of the grant. We have flagged it for re-forecast, as we expect that this will result in used retail values being more expensive than the new car price, although we are waiting to see whether the grant is absorbed into existing discounts.”*
Peugeot 2008
Model: 1.2 Puretech Allure
Discount: 30.6% (from £29,540 to £20,490)
Nissan Qashqai
Model: 1.3 DIG-T Mild Hybrid Acenta Premium
Discount: 20.0% (from £30,615 to £24,490)
Volkswagen Golf
Model: 1.5 TSI Life
Discount: 18.7% (from £28,655 to £23,305)
Vauxhall Corsa
Model: 1.2 turbo Yes
Discount: 18.3% (from £20,560 to £16,790)
Hyundai Tucson
Model: 1.6 T-GDi Advance
