South East: Region first for used car sales and silver is top colour choice

More used cars are bought and sold in the South East than any other part of the country - and the most popular vehicle colours are silver, black, blue and grey. 

The top 10 models, in sales order, are Ford Fiesta, Ford Focus, Vauxhall Corsa, Vauxhall Astra, Volkswagen Golf, BMW 3 Series, Renault Clio, Volkswagen Polo, MINI and Peugeot 206.

Britain’s used car market reached record levels in 2016 with 8.2 million vehicles finding new owners – an uplift of 7.3% – according to figures published  by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). Meanwhile, 1.8 million used cars changed hands in the fourth quarter, with a 5.5% rise in October making it the second busiest month since the switch to a biannual new car plate change – the busiest month being April of the same year.

The market reflected the changes in new car consumer tastes, with smaller car demand showing no sign of slowing. Superminis were again the best-selling body type accounting for more than a third of all used car sales whilst transactions of city cars grew 11.5%. Of all body types, however, SUVs’ popularity rose fastest – up nearly 17% to take an 8.3% share of the market.

Although petrol still leads as the used fuel type of choice with more than 4.6 million traded, its market share fell slightly by -1.5% as alternatively fuelled vehicle (AFV) and diesel demand enjoyed greater growth, again reflecting the shift in new car sales to diesel over the past decade or so. Used AFV registrations rose 32.5%, while diesels increased 11.1% and petrol transactions grew 4.7%.

Regionally, 14.9% of all used cars changing hands in 2016 did so in the South East, followed by the North West where more than one in 10 of the UK’s used cars were sold (10.4%), and the East with 9.8% market share.