Editor’s note: This article was first published in September 2011, as a market snapshot from summer 2011. The July 2011 price drop, the end of the Plan 2000E car purchase subsidies and the VAT rise from 16% to 18% all refer to that period.
Until recently, used cars were consumers’ fallback for changing vehicles in times of crisis, but this business is starting to feel the drop in domestic demand. According to the European price observatory run by the online car marketplace AutoScout24, the average price of second-hand vehicles fell again in July, by 3.5%.
Even so, and despite this new drop, Spain is still the country with the third-highest used car prices in Europe, behind only Germany and Italy.
The fall in demand in this business is due to the end of the car purchase subsidies (Plan 2000E), promoted by the Ministry of Industry, and to the increase in VAT rates (from 16% to 18%).
Faced with this situation, dealers in this line of business have been forced to cut prices, which are now €600 below the European average.
What a typical used car looks like
Used car demand has some common features: the vehicles are more than 7 years old and have at least 95,000 kilometers on the odometer.
The most requested power output is 140 hp, with a 2,093 cc engine, and as a rule more than 60% of demand is for diesel vehicles.
Further reading
- The crisis is already hitting El Corte Inglés
- How to run a business in times of crisis
- How to increase a business’s sales in a crisis
Featured image: Infrogmation of New Orleans, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
