Glass's October 2003 Used Car Price Index reveals an upward movement in residual values across seven of the 10 market sectors analysed compared to 12-months ago, both for one and three-year-old cars.

Detailed examination of specific segments reveals that the only sectors to show an increase in the rate of depreciation were lower-medium (e.g. VW Golf and Ford Focus), compact MPVs (e.g. Renault Megane Scenic and Vauxhall Zafira) and upper-medium executive models (e.g. BMW 3 Series and Audi A4).

Although the influence of the three sectors highlighted above meant that prices for the market as a whole were reduced over the 12-month period by £99 (-1 per cent) for one-year-old cars and £73 (-1.1 per cent) for three-year-old vehicles compared to October 2002, the overall situation for residual values across the majority of market sectors continues to remain stable.

"The overall picture for used car prices is fairly positive," comments Alan Cole, consultant for Glass's Market Intelligence Service. "With the prices of new cars now beginning to increase for the first time since early 2001 and with a generally stable economic outlook, we would expect recent improvements in used car prices to continue in the short term across the market as a whole."