Modelling the supply of private used cars: a study of two prominent brands in Fiji

Abstract

In this paper, we model the resale value of private used cars in Fiji. We consider Toyota and Nissan cars which are the two relatively prominent brands in Fiji. Drawing on a sample of 175 Toyota used cars and 108 Nissan used cars over the period January 2012 to December 2012 from Car4Sale.com.fj website, and using ordinary least squares method, we explore the elasticity coefficients of key determinants of the resale values of private used cars. Our results show that for Toyota cars, the resale value is positively affected by model year and transmission type (manual or automatic) and negatively affected by mileage. For Nissan cars, the resale value is positively influenced by the engine capacity and model year and negatively affected by the mileage. Subsequently, both brands of used cars resale value behave similar with respect to the model year and mileage, and somewhat differs with engine capacity and transmission types.