It’s finally happened. Prices of the last model Volkswagen Golf are starting to slip – which was always going to happen, of course. No old model is immune from the effects of a replacement, even if in this case the new one hasn’t been quite as brilliantly received as new Golfs of old.

What’s interesting is that it took so long. This is almost eight months after the Golf MKV was launched. We saw petrol models starting to slip a month or so ago, but in the last few weeks there’s been a downward shift on the diesels too. And with a number of imported new-model diesel Golfs starting to appear at the supersites for substantial discounts on list price, that drop in value of the old model is likely to continue.

Compare that with Vauxhall’s Astra, replaced at around the same time. Astra values started dropping months before the new model arrived, although bizarrely enough, it seems they’ve just started to rise slightly again. It’s a common occurrence – a recently replaced model’s value drops quickly until it reaches a point where you’re buying a nearly-new car (but older model) for a fraction of the price of the new whizz-bang version.

More people cotton on to this and so demand, which has been falling, turns around and nudges prices back up again.

It’s a perfect example of how a price guide like Parker’s can save the motoring public a lot of money. Buy at the wrong time, or without consulting a reputable guide and consumers risk being out of touch with the very latest developments.

Parker’s is in a unique position because our data team has access to hundreds of thousands of prices from inside the trade as well as retail and private sale transactions. And we’re lucky to have some of the smartest and most experienced car valuation experts around, so we tend to see things almost as they happen. This all adds to our position as a trusted price guide that’s been around for 32 years.

This month, Parker’s has added a new section listing the latest deals on pre-registered cars. It’s an increasingly important market and we felt we needed to give our users a steer as to the value of these cars and their knock-on effect to other 04/04-registered cars.