It was clear a year and a half ago that interest in used cars would increase with the end of the pandemic. But reality also surpassed black scenarios. Due to the lack of chips, it is not possible to resume the production of new cars, and customers are grateful for the annual used cars and thus trigger a domino effect among older cars. The same is happening in Western countries. As people are willing to pay more, more and more cars are coming from us.
The prices of popular models fly up, while the less popular ones get on the course. “The Volkswagen Passat has risen in price since the beginning of the year by 8.3 percent, the Škoda Rapid by nine,” calculates Petr Vaněček from AAA Auto. Until recently, Rapid belonged to the second-hand Cinderella, in last year’s review we recommended it for a favorable price. A five-year-old car with 80,000 km then cost around two hundred thousand crowns, now over two hundred and twenty.
All traders resorted to a similar increase in price. “Otherwise, we should be sold out within a week,” concludes Karel Kadeřávek, the director of sales of used cars of the Tukas group, with exaggeration.
Everyone agrees that several factors have contributed to the huge rise in demand. In the first place, the lack of new cars. The factories were stopped last year by covid and this year by a lack of chips. Surprisingly, it seems that this second outage will shake the market more significantly. The first closure coincided with a slowdown in sales, while the current shutdowns come in a period when demand is growing sharply.
Most carmakers admit that the situation will not be settled by the end of the year. For domestic Škoda, some specifications are expected to take up to nine months, and for cars manufactured in Asia, the deadlines are extended by congested maritime transport. Customers do not want to wait and hunt between annual or biennial used. But there are also a limited number of them, so prices are starting to rise.
On the other hand, new and younger cars are attacked by buyers from abroad, especially from Germany. There are also no new cars, people have higher incomes and are willing to pay extra. According to statistics of the German server Autoscout advertised used car prices have risen by 10.2 percent since last year.
“The interest of German dealers in Czech used cars is enormous, they would buy hundreds of cars a month from only our five used cars. For all cars from the Volkswagen Group, including Škoda cars, dealers are willing to pay unimaginable prices until recently,” says Robert Imling, used sales director. cars Louda Auto Plus.
Similar situations have so far taken place only at a weak exchange rate of the koruna against the euro. It now remains at a relatively high value of CZK 25.60, but the strength of German demand is stronger.
Increased prices drive away the original Czech customers from annual cars, who have to look for a lower category. And they evoke the same situation here: excess demand, higher prices and a shift in the interest of existing clients to the next age class. Domino is gradually spilling over into a group of cars older than fifteen years.
Moreover, all this is happening at a time when a wave of deferred demand has been pouring into bazaars over the last eighteen months. People who wanted to change to a newer car during or before the covid, are coming now. This demand covers all age categories and further increases the pressure on the price in all of them.
Only a slight consolation may be that the purchase prices are rising proportionally. In order for bazaars to have something to sell, they must not put so much pressure on the saw. So if you leave an older car against, the difference will be reduced.
Nevertheless, there is no time to postpone purchasing the car. Sales traditionally peak in the autumn, so the biggest excess demand is yet to come. “In the coming months, they will probably increase by one percent more,” predicts Petr Vaněček from AAA Auto.
Video test of used Ford Mondeo:
Auto Report bazaar – Ford Mondeo | Video: Jakub Zuzánek, Martin Frei
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