The Renault Kadjar (2018 petrol manual) has been named February’s fastest selling used car, flying off forecourts in an average of just 17 days.
Proving that sports utility vehicles (SUV) are fast becoming the UK’s favourite, this is the third consecutive month that an SUV has taken the top spot as the fastest selling used car. And consumers are happy to splash out on their perfect 4x4 – the Mercedes-Benz GLC took the top spot in December and January, and in February featured in both sixth and seventh place.
Big was clearly best regionally too, with the body type taking the top spot in London (2015 Nissan Qashqai petrol automatic - 37 days), Northern Ireland (2016 Hyundai Tucson diesel manual – 36 days), Scotland (2018 Renault Kadjar petrol manual – 32 days), South (2016 Hyundai Tucson diesel manual – 56 days), South East (2018 Mercedes-Benz GLC-Class diesel automatic – 34 days) and Wales (2018 Nissan Qashqai diesel manual – 30 days).
Elsewhere, February was Ford’s month with the marque’s motors shifting quickest in the East Midlands (2016 Ford Focus petrol manual – 52 days), North East (2016 Ford Fiesta petrol manual - 73 days), South West (2013 Ford Fiesta petrol manual – 36 days), West Midlands (2012 Ford Focus petrol manual – 34 days) and Yorkshire (2012 Ford Focus diesel manual - 31 days).
Karolina Edwards-Smajda, Auto Trader’s Director of Commercial Products, said: “Aside from the clear signs of a huge investment in electric, this month’s Geneva Motor Show was dominated by an exciting array of new generation 4x4s and crossovers. And with SUVs taking the crown for overall fastest selling used car for three consecutive months, their position as a forecourt favourite shows no sign of abating.
Hitting targets will always be determined by how quickly a retailer can turn their stock around and using data is the key to speeding it up. Users of i-Control, Auto Trader’s data management solution, took an average of just 39 days to sell a car in February, compared to a market average of 74; 47% faster than those that don’t use the data management tool.