Buying a new car has become a real obstacle course. Eternal waiting times, increased price lists, accessories that cannot be found due to the lack of semiconductors.
The most obvious solution? Focus on used cars, even better if they are recent or not very long. But here too the bad news comes. The second-hand car market has undergone a real surge, significantly increasing the amounts to be invested and at the same time reducing the availability of cars due to the high demand. If until a few years the second-hand market was a harbinger of “good deals” for the motorist, today everything is more complex and expensive.
Increases of 20% in one year
Using the numbers of the Agpi index, which measures the prices of used cars for sale on AutoScout24 and considers second-hand vehicles published for less than 18 weeks and one with a value of less than 250 thousand euros, in the last year the increases exceeded the 20% and in three years the average cost has risen by as much as 33%. “Stock constraints and a high and continuous consumer demand – says Sergio Lanfranchi, AutoScout24 Center of Studies – have led to a constant increase in the sale prices of used cars also in the first 7 months of 2022. According to the price index of AutoScout24, the average value of a used car in July 2022 reached the threshold of about 21,600 euros, equal to + 21.7% compared to the same month last year and + 33.6% compared to July 2019. For dealers, even in the current distribution scenario, online proved to be the ideal tool to maximize sales and purchase opportunities, especially through the tools useful for keeping the market under control, every day, by monitoring the supply and demand data “.
Availability at the dealership
Of course, the lack of new cars and the greater focus on used vehicles has also changed the availability at the dealership. As underlined by the survey carried out by the Fleet & Mobility Study Center, the average stock of used cars at the dealer underwent strong fluctuations over the ten years analyzed (from 2012 to 2021) which led it to reach a maximum peak of 89 units. in 2017 and a minimum peak of 50 in 2021.
Another interesting fact comes from the time spent. From 2012 to 2014, the stock of used cars remained on average in stock for 84 days. From 2015 to 2020 the days were reduced to 73 days (2.3 months). In 2021, for the same reason analyzed above, they were reduced to 59. Translated? If at the beginning of the period the warehouse rotated 4.4 times a year, in the last year the speed has increased to 6.2 times.