Diesel Used Cars Stalled

For weeks, this has been a German topic on my mind and today....Focus put up a business story over the topic.....the used diesel vehicles sitting on German used-car lots.

What is generally said is that roughly three-quarters of the German car dealerships are stuck with German diesel vehicles which have to be decreased in value....to 'dump' off the lot.  No one says the lost amount, but one might take a guess that most all dealers are seeing zero profit on these used vehicles.  Acceptance of diesel vehicles in the future?  If I were a dealer.....it'd be a no-go for me....zero diesels on the lot.

What is generally said now is that while the new Euro 6 diesel cars will pass on the numbers game....you start running into issues with all prior diesel standards.

Dealers suggest that the Euro 4 standard (manufactured at seven years ago)....have lost enough value that they are at the bottom level of value anyway.

An Audi A4 diesel from 2004, with 218k km...will be shown around at 5,200 Euro.  The odds are that this guy will have to settle for 4,000 Euro in order to 'dump' it.

An Audi A4 convertible from 2003 with 186 km...will be shown at 5,800 Euro.  The odds are that this owner will have to settle for 4,500 Euro to move it on.

But dealers are chatting about the crappy resell value now upon Euro 5 standard diesel cars.  The numbers around all of Germany indicate roughly 300,000 cars sitting on dealer lots.  The bulk value for the nation?  Near five billion Euro.  Because of the unclear future path for these cars....no one is showing up to talk over a trade for these....so they sit.

The dealers?  It's a crappy position.  They need some solid position by the government to be put out there and the individual bans being discussed by cities across Germany to be halted.  They need judges to allow this to stay in place.  If they don't go this direction?  Other than trying to move the cars into other countries and try to market them there....there is no future for handling diesel car trades.

It is a shocking development to consider that none of this existed in the spring of 2016, and this is how far we've come in eighteen months.  An entire industry of Germany sitting on five billion Euro worth of goods that can't really be moved or traded....just sitting there in hopes that some idiot political figure might come and rescue them.  It's a sad epic story in the making.