The Netherlands has never been a very large diesel country. The high purchase price of a new diesel and the hefty road tax pushed the turning point up considerably. You had to drive somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 miles a year to take advantage of it. So that was mainly a matter for the business driver. A used diesel was already a lot more interesting for the private individual. In that case, the purchase price was often lower than that of a comparable petrol car. In any case, the tipping point went down quite a bit.
Diesel in the damn corner
Today, not only is the diesel price starting to get eerily close to the gasoline price, but diesel is also in the dark. There are circles where you can no longer show yourself with a diesel. In addition, due to all the emission-limiting adjustments, the diesel engine has become a complicated piece of technology, in which you regularly have to invest in maintaining and possibly repairing it. Does this mean that the diesel will remain in the country’s occasion palaces? It just depends on who you ask.
Regional differences for used diesel
First, let’s take a look at Leon Zoetemelk, sales manager at Autobedrijf Tanis in Waddinxveen, in the middle of the Green Heart and wedged between the major cities. When we ask him about the sale of diesel cars, he first sighs. “I have two more here, but there is no demand for them at all. The turning point of a diesel is at 25,000 kilometers, but there is no private person who drives that. If diesels are sold, it is through international auctions. Young cars are disappearing to the countries around us. In Belgium, Germany and France the fixed costs for a diesel are the same as for a petrol car. The older diesels often go to Eastern Europe, although the diesel market is already being squeezed in many of those far-away countries. It is, of course, strange that cars that are no longer allowed by us from an environmental point of view are still sold there in abundance,” says Zoetemelk. There is also an exception. “I recently sold a very nice BMW 320d to someone who lives in Doetinchem. It could well be that people who live outside the Randstad are more likely to drive a diesel.”
Diesel still popular outside the Randstad
That is the signal for us to start calling companies in the outlying areas. Seldenrijk is a gigantic used car company in Harderwijk. Of the more than 400 cars that Seldenrijk has in its stock, a quarter is still diesel. “Diesels still sell as usual and we are certainly not afraid to buy them in,” says Mark Jonker, who is responsible for sales and customer contact. “There is still a large group of people who find a diesel no problem at all. We mainly sell young diesels to business customers. The taxi market, for example, is still a rewarding sales channel. Private individuals also like to drive diesel cars, especially because they are cheaper to buy than petrol cars. That pushes the turning point”, says Jonker. In which region do the people who buy a diesel at Seldenrijk live? “We actually have no idea about that; we don’t pay much attention to that.”
Still popular Volvo V40 D2
Jonker does indicate that the export market is also lively. “This mainly concerns the current models. Golfs, 3-series and Audi’s A4 are popular everywhere. For example, when a Volvo V40 D2 from 2013 with a low mileage arrives, it is popular on the Dutch market as well as on the export market. It’s really gone.”
Limburg least interested in diesel
A look at the figures from the used car portal Autotrack shows us that the searches for used cars do indeed differ regionally. In most provinces, only 11 to 12 percent of searches concern a diesel. It is striking that Limburg scores the lowest. Only 8.6 percent are still looking for a diesel as their next car.
Groningen and Friesland
However, if we look in the north of the country, we see that the share in Groningen and Friesland is still 19 percent. Diesel is still a popular fuel there. It reminds us of the words of Evert Pieper, who supplied us with the cars from the budget test. Even in the lowest segment of the market, he does not notice a decrease in interest in diesel. “In the Randstad, people are plagued by environmental zones and also what their neighbors think, but in Groningen and Friesland the distances that people travel are greater and you can still roam the entire province unhindered.”
Look at here the offer used diesels on our site.
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