CHINESE vehicles are now not only among the fastest-selling new cars, but now the BYD Shark 6 has become the country’s fastest-selling used vehicle.

In August, vehicles made in China accounted for five of the eight quickest-selling models across the states and territories.

BYD Shark 6

The BYD Shark 6 was the fastest, taking an average of 27.9 days and retained 92.1 per cent of its value. The Shark’s sibling, the BYD Atto 3, was Victoria’s fastest seller at 27.7 days.   

The August overall average was 51.5 days to sell, down from 52.1 days in July.

But the latest AADA-AutoGrab research on used vehicles shows that the fast-selling vehicles did not always command strong retained values. The research for trading in August said that the MG ZST, for example, took just 23.2 days to sell in Queensland but retained 60.7 per cent of its original value. 

By contrast, the Suzuki Jimny, the best-retained model nationally, took 58.3 days to sell. Its retained value is the used-car market’s highest – a position it has held for a year – at 102.7 per cent. It has been as high as 111 per cent.Australia’s used-vehicle market in August strengthened over July, the AADA-AutoGrab report said, with 243,514 vehicles sold in the month, up 1.3 per cent in July.

At the same time, vehicles advertised for sale in August were 422,509, down 3.5 per cent in July. The report said that the share of dealers involved in August trade was 40.9 per cent of sales.

AADA CEO James Voortman said that the report shows that Australia’s used vehicle market continued to build momentum in August.

James Voortman

But he said that looking at the state-by-state data, “there is no single story playing out across the country”.

“Victoria may have taken the title for fastest-growing major market, but NSW is still comfortably the biggest, with almost 17,000 one-to-five-year-old vehicles changing hands in August,” he said.

“Queensland, WA and South Australia also recorded solid growth, while Tasmania and the territories went backwards.”

Talking about specific vehicles, he said that the Ford Ranger’s dominance of the used market “is pretty remarkable”.“It was the top-selling one-to-five-year-old vehicle in seven of the eight states and territories,” he said.

“The ACT was the one market to buck the trend, where the Toyota RAV4 managed to beat the Ranger.”

Mr Voortman said that the Ranger has held first place in every mainland state since June. 

“The exception is the ACT, where the Toyota RAV4 outsold the Ford Ranger 27 to 19,” he added.

Saxon Odgers

“The Toyota Hilux is second in five markets and in the Northern Territory, the two utes together account for 20.4 per cent of sales.”

AutoGrab chief commercial officer Saxon Odger said there were big increases in EV sales.

“Used EV sales rose 19.4 per cent in August, outpacing the movements in all other fuel types,” he said.

“This was despite the fact that EVs continue to make up a significantly smaller segment of the used market than petrol and diesel vehicles.”