carwow warns of impact of Scottish ULEZ schemes on used car market
May 03, 2023 by carwow staff
Car changing is a big deal
3 May 2023, London: carwow, the UK鈥檚 leading online car buying and selling marketplace, is predicting that the planned introduction of new Low Emissions Zones (LEZ) in Scotland will have significant ramifications for the used-car market north of the border.
As well as prompting more retail activity as consumers seek to replace affected cars, dealers in relevant areas may need to retail part-exchange stock at greatly reduced prices locally, or be ready to sell them outside their typical territories to maximise returns.
鈥淎ll eyes may be on London鈥檚 ULEZ and its planned expansion in August, but Glasgow鈥檚 Low Emission Zone, which comes into force in June, could start a series of ripples in the Scottish used-car market that become a veritable tide next year, when three more similar schemes come into force north of the border,鈥 comments Hugo Griffiths, Consumer Editor at carwow.
鈥淟ondon鈥檚 ULEZ allows drivers to pay a daily fee to drive older, more polluting cars into the zone, but Glasgow鈥檚 LEZ makes no such provision: if your diesel car is not Euro 6 compliant or your petrol one not Euro 4, you will simply be banned from entering the centre of Scotland鈥檚 most populous city, with a 拢60 penalty for the first offence, and that fine doubling until it reaches to a cap of 拢480 鈥 per infraction 鈥 leaving individual motorists with theoretical fines of 拢174,180 per year if they drive into the zone every day.
鈥淭hree further Scottish LEZ schemes, working on identical principles to Glasgow鈥檚, are being introduced in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Dundee in 2024. Given the broad geographical area these cities span, and that (roughly) pre-2015 diesels and pre-2006 petrol cars will be banned from entering their centres, non-compliant cars could soon experience a marked drop in value north of the border.鈥