Diesel fastest selling fuel type nationally as petrol wins regionally

The 2016 SEAT Alhambra (diesel, automatic) is the UK’s fastest selling used car for the second consecutive month, whereas petrol wins out on a regional basis.

The Auto Trader Fastest Selling Index shows that the Alhambra has the potential to sell in an average of 23 days when priced to the live retail market.

The fastest selling petrol car was the 2015 Dacia Sandero Stepway (manual), with a potential turn time of 30 days, while the 2016 SEAT Alhambra (2016 automatic – 24 days) topped the list for diesel.

The 2015 Renault Zoe (automatic) retained its title as the fastest selling EV with a potential to sell in just 26 days.

Seven of the 12 regions and countries tracked by the Index reported petrol as the fastest selling car.

Karolina Edwards-Smajda, Auto Trader’s director of commercial products,  said: “Due to a growing array of exceptional macro-economic influences, the market is constantly shifting – supply, demand and price are all changing by the day.

“We strongly believe that to succeed within this challenging environment retailers need to be agile and able to adapt their forecourt strategy quickly. Data intelligence is key to this.

“Complementing their own years of experience, data can inform every aspect of the sales process to ensure they’re stocking the right cars for the right price, helping to speed up the days to turn and increasing profits in the process.”

The Index is based on analysis of over 1.9 million vehicles each day, including 90,000 vehicle updates and an average of 19,000 vehicles added or removed from Auto Trader.