Before Covid, for two Italians who bought a new car there were three who bought a used one. Last year and in the first few months of this year, the ratio dropped to 1: 2, with four used cars for every two new cars. This is what years ago from these pages we baptized the “Cuba effect”. If the industry keeps new cars out of the reach of citizens, they turn to used cars.
Furthermore, the phenomenon is also favored by the high quality achieved by the product in this century, so much so that it makes little sense to define cars with ten or fifteen years of life old, at least for Italians. In 2010, only one in four used cars was more than ten years old, that is, it was from the last century. Today we are one in two and many are cars built in this century.
Another relevant feature is that this market is only frequented by private buyers. Businesses do not buy used cars, but sell them, with a share that is less than half the pie. The other half is made up of private-private exchanges.
This, therefore, means that there is a large and relevant space for professional operators, especially since these products are not found in city markets but on supranational online platforms, so the suitable car is perhaps hundreds of kilometers away. A study conducted by CarNext, a LeasePlan company specializing in the sale of second-hand items, absolutely confirms the orientation of consumers to buy on online platforms, but with significant limits.
The site must be certified, as must be the operator who sells it, and the vehicle must be reliable and overhauled, almost as if you were buying a new car. In addition, they give priority to payment security and the duration of the guarantee.