The part exchange car market can be notoriously fickle. Like the butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil leading to a warm summer in the UK, there are many variables to consider. Fluctuating interest rates, rising petrol costs, spiralling inflation, taxation, demand and supply. All these factors feed back into the market and indirectly affect the desirability and value of all the vehicles in it.

Scouring the used car valuation market, organisations like CAP, EurotaxGlass and Parkers will always throw up a surprise or two, but the fun comes once you look deeper and the reasoning becomes clear. Last year it was the surprise popularity and increased demand for second hand convertibles that raised an eyebrow, as hard-top coupe cabriolets gained favour with used car customers.

Retail customer interest in the convertible market had always risen for the summer and fallen away in winter but the experts at CAP found that this fickleness had begun to reduce as people were won over by the weatherproof security offered by the new breed of folding hard-top. This led to steady turnover, strong residuals and a lot less stock sitting idly on forecourts up and down the country throughout the year.

Now it’s the turn of the 4x4, but this time the news isn’t good. Latest findings have shown that the market among used car buyers for petrol fuelled 4x4s is fast disappearing. There is a very real risk that owners may be unable to change their cars as dealers steer clear of the thirsty off-roaders – particularly those with big V8 engines – and are far less likely to take them in part exchange. Worryingly, from a dealer’s point of view, there are reports that even if they were to offer rock bottom prices for the cars then send them to auction, there is no longer any guarantee they would sell.

Andrew Harrison-Smith, owner of independent Land Rover specialist Nene Overland says that while the whole 4x4 market was facing a difficult time, depreciation on petrol 4x4s is currently very heavy. “Values for petrol engine 4x4s are £3000 or even £4000 lower than for the diesels” he told Parker’s. He suggested that owners and buyers could be hit less hard if they consider converting large petrol Land Rovers and Jeeps to run on LPG (liquefied petroleum gas).

So what to do? Certainly, if you are sat with a top of the range V8 monster perhaps now is not the best time to be considering selling, or if you are, don’t expect the return you anticipated. But what about the dealers and suppliers, who keep the market turning? The last thing they want is a compound littered with rapidly depreciating metal for the next 6 months. But when faced with a problem, sometimes it sharpens the mind and focuses the brain, and perhaps we’ve lost site of what a 4x4 is actually all about in the past few years?

Motor industry consultancy Network Automotive believes we have. Managing director Colin Bruder explained, "While soft-roaders are doing reasonably well at the moment, large 4x4 sales are suffering… the overall sector down by something like 18 per cent.”

"The factors behind this fall – high fuel prices and growing environmental concerns – are not going to go away but dealers can fight the slump by changing their sales and marketing efforts to focus on different markets. One idea is to go 'back to basics' with these models and promote them to the kind of markets where their core off-road abilities have very strong appeal – such as fire, ambulance, police and specialist public sector fleets. Here, the demand for this kind of vehicle is consistent and largely credit crunch-proof."

So can the emergency services come to the rescue and at least provide some form of stability for the market to build upon?

"Certainly, large 4x4 sales have always formed an element of these specialist fleet sales but manufacturer and dealer interest has been sporadic simply because retail demand for large and expensive off-roaders has been so strong in recent years, which has served as something of a distraction,” warned Bruder. “With that retail demand starting to plateau and probably slide in the coming months and years, we believe that there is potential for manufacturers and dealers to maximise large 4x4 sales opportunities through this route."

So if you can’t sell your Range Rover, it might be worth asking the local Police or Fire service if they would be interested. Failing that, I’m sure a TV production company would help – with the amount of detective and medical dramas they make, their fleets are probably bigger than the real thing.

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