Motorists hoping to bag a bargain following the Volkswagen Group emissions scandal will be disappointed, because residual values of models from VW, Audi, Skoda and Seat have barely moved, according to research by Whatcar.com.

It is now a year since the news broke about VW emissions tests and it was thought that VW sales might drop and second-hand model value would decline due to the adverse publicity. Neither appears to have happened, with the Volkswagen Golf and Polo still among the top selling cars.

Meanwhile, Whatcar.com’s depreciation database, which helps motorists calculate how much money their car will lose based on age and mileage, shows VW, Audi and Skoda models retain above average value after three years and/or 36,000 miles. A survey conducted by Whatcar.com also shows that three in five motorists (59%) are just as likely to buy from VW brands as they were before the scandal.

What Car? Editor, Steve Huntingford, said, “I’m sure there are motorists out there who were rubbing their hands in glee at the thought of used VW prices falling off a cliff because of the emissions debacle. That simply hasn’t come to pass. What this reflects is the fact that, although VW has cheated and undoubtedly still has a job to do to retain the trust of its customers going forwards, it still makes cars that consumers want to buy.”

Overall, VW models retain 42.21% of their original value now, down 2.7% compared with just before the scandal broke. Audi models have depreciated a similar amount in the same timescale, dropping from retaining 47.58% of their original value in July 2015 to 44.72% in June this year, a fall of 2.9%.

Seat and Skoda models have also depreciated post-scandal, but only by negligible amounts, with drops of 0.46% and 0.43% respectively.

However, across the automotive industry as a whole, there has been a dip in residual values of slightly more than 2% for all manufacturers, meaning that the VW Group brands are reflecting the market standard. Overall, across all car makers, the average residual value for a three-year-old car and/or 36,000 miles is 41.69%.