The price of ULEZ-compliant second-hand cars has more than doubled in some cases, in part due to the enormous demand for vehicles that will avoid the £12.50 daily charge when the expanded zone comes into effect this summer.
As of August 29, the existing Ultra-Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) will be expanded to cover almost every inch of London, bringing hundreds of thousands more people into the daily charging area.
Any vehicles that exceed the emissions limit set by Transport for London will activate a £12.50 daily charge for driving anywhere within the ULEZ, and as a result, the demand has rocketed for used cars and vans that won’t see their owners hit by the fee.
Some drivers are being hit by a double whammy where they bought a non-compliant car in the past few years, as they are now worth significantly less for trade-ins.
The Mayor of London has launched a new scrappage scheme providing financial assistance to help Londoners scrap their polluting vehicles to prepare for the expansion of the ULEZ across all London Boroughs
Lewis Cooper, sales director at Approved Cars Croydon, a used car dealership in Waddon, said ULEZ compliant cars are ‘going like hot cakes’ and his dealership is struggling to get hold of stock.
In some cases, prices have more than doubled, he said.
He told MyLondon: ‘We’ve stopped buying cars that aren’t ULEZ compliant and we’ve got a lot of customers who are wanting to trade in the cars they bought from us a couple of years ago. We can’t give them much. They’ll be getting way under what they paid for it.’
Small automatic cars under £5,000 are particularly in demand.
Mr Cooper added: ‘I bought a used car recently for my mother-in-law.
‘It was a 2008 Mercedes A-Class that a couple of years ago would have been £2,000 at most at auction. We ended up paying £4,500 for it and that’s trade prices.’
Mr Cooper recently bought a 2008 Mercedes Benz A-Class for £4,500. In 2021, he said the value of this older model would have been closer to £2,000, but huge demand for cheaper ULEZ-compliant cars has forced prices higher in the capital
While ULEZ-compliant second-hand cars are going up in price in London, those that fail to meet the required emission standard are crashing in value. A 2013 diesel Ford Fiesta, for example, does not qualify for ULEZ exemption. Values have almost halved, Mr Cooper said
On the flipside, cars that are not compliant with ULEZ rules are crashing in value in the capital.
Mr Cooper said examples of the popular Ford Fiesta that fail to meet the zone’s required emission standards would have sold for around £8,500 two years ago but today are worth close to £4,500.
Londoners searching for charge-avoiding models via AutoTrader will find it difficult to track down a bargain.
The used car platform tallied up how many used cars it had for sale in London under £5,000 that are ULEZ compliant – it it found there were only 5,150 available in January.
Set against TfL’s estimate that 200,000 people are impacted by the expansion and in need of upgrading their vehicles, that shortage goes some way to explaining the eye-watering price rises.
According to AutoTrader, the average cost of a used diesel car complying with ULEZ regulations is now £19,991 with the equivalent petrol engine costing £15,000.
The average cost of a used electric vehicle is even higher at £36,102.
These figures factor in every compliant used car for sale including those that are only a year or two old so pricier cars will skew the figures.
The cheapest compliant cars on sale within 25 miles of Central London in March this year was a 2007 Renault Clio for £895 with a mileage of around 101,000.
The second cheapest was also a Renault Clio from 2005 with 133,000 miles on the clock, for £1,095. Seven of the eight cheapest cars available were all Clios.
The cheapest example of a ULEZ-compliant car found on AutoTrader was a high-mileage 2007 Renault Clio (file photo) for £895
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s £110million scrappage scheme was introduced to provide some financial help to Londoners to scrap or retrofit vehicles that don’t meet the emissions requirements.
However, that’s been described as a ‘drop in the ocean’ when the average price of a used car is nine times that.
Erin Baker, editorial director at Auto Trader, said: ‘When the average price of a used car is £18,000, a £2,000 scrappage scheme is a drop in the ocean for low-income drivers in outer London who want to avoid ULEZ payments.
‘Drivers looking for cheaper ways to beat the tax are also struggling. With the impact of the Covid pandemic likely to keep used car prices high for some time, the lack of affordable options for those on tighter budgets is a real worry in a cost of living crisis. Many of those who can’t use public transport will be put in an impossible position.’
There were just 18 cars available across the entire city and just over the borders that were under £2,000 and ULEZ compliant.
Even without ULEZ, the prices of used cars remain at record levels thanks to the supply chain disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, which AutoTrader says cut the number of new cars produced in the UK last year to the lowest since 1956.
One loophole to paying the ULEZ fee even if your vehicle isn’t compliant is the historic vehicle tax class which allows for vehicles more than 40 years old to get an exemption.
Most vehicles that old which are still roadworthy are almost certainly going to be lovingly maintained classic cars.
While they are a labour of love to keep running and potentially pricey to maintain, they are significantly cheaper than the average cost of a compliant car at the point of purchase.
Mr Khan’s so-called ‘war on motorists’ has focused on the expansion of the ULEZ.
It also also centred on more roadworks, low-traffic neighbourhoods and cycle lanes.
Mr Khan has denied such a war exists and insists he has a duty to tackle ‘poisonous air’.
Auto Trader’s Erin Baker says the Sadiq Khan’s £2,000 ULEZ scrappage scheme launched last month is a ‘drop in the ocean’ for low-income drivers who need to replace their non-compliant older vehicles
Campaign groups have hit out at Sadiq Khan for ‘playing with the privacy of London’s inhabitants’ after it emerged he has already granted the Met Police access to new cameras installed for the ULEZ expansion.
The Mayor of London granted TfL the power to give the Met access to additional Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras last year when he faced serious backlash from privacy groups and opposing councillors.
Newly installed ULEZ cameras have even been vandalised in some cases, including having their wires cut and lenses painted black amid growing backlash.
More than 300 ANPR cameras were recently installed, while a total of 2,750 are set to be added by the official launch date on August 29 later this year.
It also emerged earlier this month that Mr Khan’s officials had secretly ordered hundreds of enforcement cameras before the public voted to reject the project.
MailOnline has contacted TfL for comment.
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