THE North-East has the lowest average asking price for second cars in the country, Auto Trader reports.

In its quarterly index which tracks the prices of used cars in the UK the company found that motors in this region are being offered for an average price of £7,785 compared to a national average of £8,870. Asking prices in the North-East experienced a 4.97 per cent drop from the previous quarter, significantly sharper than the national fall of 3.65 per cent.

The overall decline is blamed on sluggish new cars sales across the UK, and therefore fewer of these high value vehicles have been filtering through to the second-hand market.

The top three most searched for cars in the region according to Auto Trader were Volkswagen Golf, BMW 3 Series and Ford Focus.