It’s back to school with SEAT as the Alhambra retains its fastest selling status

For the second consecutive month, the 2016 SEAT Alhambra (diesel, automatic) is the UK’s fastest selling used car, with the potential to sell in an average of just 23 days when priced to the live retail market.

That’s the finding from the Auto Trader Fastest Selling Index, which utilises the industry’s largest and most robust data set to identify which cars have the potential to leave forecourts fastest, as well as those likely to take the longest based on live market supply and consumer demand.

As of 16^th September, the Index revealed that if priced according to the live retail market, MPVs and 4x4s have the potential to sell faster than their smaller counterparts. Seven is clearly the magic number, as the Alhambra is joined in the top three by its seven-seater stable mate the Volkswagen Sharan, with the 2017 and 2016 models ranked second and third – a sure sign the school run is influencing purchase decisions.

Powered by the Auto Trader Retail Rating metric, 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. Coupled with data from circa 450,000 daily trade used car listings, as well as additional dealer forecourt and website data, it offers the most accurate and immediate view of the fast-moving market – unlike other models which are limited to a monthly retrospective view.

Fastest selling by fuel type

When it comes to the current fastest selling car by fuel type, the 2015 Dacia Sandero Stepway (manual) took the petrol top spot, with a potential turn time of 30 days, whilst the 2016 SEAT Alhambra (2016 automatic – 24 days) came up trumps for diesel, reflecting its national position.

In line with its current national ranking and following its national success last month (ranked third and fourth), the accessible 2015 Renault Zoe (automatic) retains its title as the fastest selling EV with a potential to sell in just 26 days.

Hatchbacks dominate regionally

Despite diesel’s national dominance, seven of the 12 regions and countries tracked by the Index reported a petrol as the fastest selling car. What’s more, whilst big was best at a national level, regionally hatchbacks ruled: North East (2015 Volkswagen Polo – petrol, manual – 32 days), Northern Ireland (2015 Volkswagen Polo – petrol, manual – 30 days), Scotland (2016 Mercedes-Benz A-Class – diesel, automatic – 27 days), South West (2016 Mercedes-Benz A-Class – diesel, automatic – 29 days), West Midlands (2015 Volkswagen Polo – petrol, manual – 31 days), London (2015 Volkswagen Polo – petrol, manual – 31 days) and Wales (2015 Volkswagen Polo – petrol, manual – 30 days).

Commenting on the findings, Auto Trader’s director of commercial products, Karolina Edwards-Smajda, 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.”

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 Retail Accelerator, Auto Trader’s data management solution which is powered by the Auto Trader Retail Rating metric, are able to sell their vehicles an average of 12.8 days faster than those retailers that don’t use the data management tool.

Current fastest selling used cars (by days to turn) – as of 16^th September 2019:

Current slowest selling used cars (by days to turn) – as of 16^th September 2019:

*Article Source Newspress