The European car industry has lost momentum due to Covid. Japanese and South Korean brands have been less affected by the crisis.Continue reading
The outlook for the used car market is positive this year, with imports of used cars gradually recovering from a low point a year ago. Nearly 65,000 used cars changed hands in Hungary in February, down 4 percent from the previous month, Világgazdaság reported.
A total of 132,700 cars changed hands on the used car market in the first two months of the year, still 6 percent down on the 141,200 cars that changed hands in the base period. The lower figures are not surprising, however, given that a year ago used car imports were at a low point.
However, used car sales could soon return to previous levels, reflecting the fact that the new car market hit a low last year.
Long waiting lists have developed, and the price of new cars has risen dramatically, shifting part of the demand to the used car market.
It is also important to note that the new car market has reached a low point on the European level as well. The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) has published the statistics for new car registrations in Europe in 2022, and the numbers were very bad. Overall, 9.3 million new passenger cars were sold in Europe, the worst result since 9.2 million in 1993.
Although this phenomenon also meant that the price of used cars, especially young cars, rose.
In two years, the average price of used cars in Hungary has risen by 70 percent, by 17.5 percent last year, and by 43 percent a year earlier,
according to statistics compiled by the most important market players at the request of Vezess.hu, reported Portfolio on the topic. The average offer price on one of the leading used car websites, Használtautó.hu, which publishes one million car ads a year, rose to HUF 4.68 million (EUR 12,000) in 2022, while the average price a year earlier was HUF 3.98 million (EUR 10,200), compared to HUF 2.78 million (EUR 7,100) in 2020.
Bertalan Halász, CEO of JóAutók.hu, said that the uncertainty caused by utility costs seems to be easing in the used car market as the winter season passes, with more buyers again daring to spend on durable goods. The overall outlook for this year is positive: secondhand imports are gradually recovering from the low point of last year, and the new car market is expected to gradually normalize as the shortage of chips eases, he added. The number of new cars registered in the first two months of the year was at 18,062, up 3 percent year-on-year, according to Datahouse.
Featured photo via Facebook/JL Autó Érd Autókereskedés