Higher than new price, very short time to sell, some used car sellers are doing well in a depressed market.
A bargain sometimes. Yes, but not on the buyer’s side in recent months, rather on the seller’s side. Like that of this Smart Brabus, put back on the market through a Simplicicar agency.
“The customer bought it in 2019 for 14,000 euros, then it had 20,000 kilometers, explains Yoni Dayan, founder of this automotive consultancy and purchase-sales network, who has just sold it, for 17,500 euros with almost 45,000 kilometers on the odometer.
Used more expensive than new
Faced with the increasingly long delay for a new car, due to a shortage of chips and materials, some customers are no longer ready to negotiate the price of their future car. So much so that some recent second-hand models exceed the price of the new one, as mentioned The Parisian a few days ago. A phenomenon that has persisted for almost a year.
Among the models concerned: the Dacia Sandero. New in the Dacia catalog, the SCe 65 version in Essential finish is announced at 10,990 euros. In an ad on the Le Bon Coin platform, it is displayed at 11,990 euros by a professional with 15 kilometers on the clock. That’s 1000 euros more.
“Specifically, different models such as Dacia, new generation Peugeot 308 or Tesla Model 3 are currently worth, sometimes less than 12 months, more expensive on the market than their new price,” writes Emmanuel Labi, CEO of Autobiz, a company specializing in automotive data and valuations.
300 euros more in one year
Without necessarily exceeding the price of new ones, the surge in prices largely affects the most recent vehicles: +300 euros on average in a year, all models combined, according to Autobiz. The increase is now reflected in older models: cars over 8 years old have seen their prices rise from 180 to 200 euros in one year.
“We lack the offer”, sums up Vincent Hancart, director of the AutoScout24 specialist.
A sale … if the next car is already booked
This specialist points to both the difficulties of the new market and some dried up channels (such as rental companies that regularly sell large volumes of recent cars). So the prices go up and the sales times get shorter. In Simplicicar, cars leave on average in two weeks.
But faced with this price increase, some buyers give up, in a more largely uncertain economic environment. Last month, the used car market in France fell 14.6% from September 2021 (a certainly euphoric month in the segment).
And the high price – lack of vehicles equation doesn’t seem ready to be reversed. Yoni Dayan has more and more buyers entrusting him with their vehicle for sale. But only on condition that Simplicicar finds them a new car in parallel.
