The Latvian car market is currently short of both new and used cars, and experts estimate that the situation could only improve next year. For some car dealers, the delivery of new vehicles is delayed so much that they have been overthrown from the podium of sales leaders. All this affects prices – they increase for both brand new and used cars. We asked the Latvian car market experts what are the forecasts and whether it is better to postpone the purchase of the car to another year.
New machines: the situation will improve in 6-10 months
Toyota brand cars were sold the most in Latvia this year, so we asked the chairman of the board “WESS” (the official dealer of “Toyota” and “Lexus”) Alexander Oskin to comment on the situation in the new car market. He points out that the shortage of new cars affects not only Latvia, it is a global problem. In addition, economists have long predicted that car production will fall by 7-9 million units by the end of this year, all due to a lack of chips! Oskins believes that the crisis will be overcome no earlier than in the second quarter of 2022.
“All car dealers in Latvia have faced a deficit situation, moreover, a problem is already being observed in the used car market,” says Oskins. “If a person can’t buy a new car, he will continue to drive the old one, which means that his car does not enter the used car market, and its deficit also occurs there,” he explains.
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