Shortest month of the year sees fewer and newer vehicles

The proportion of diesel cars for sale rose in February. These cars are newer, with fewer kilometres on the clock, but more expensive.

Prague 2 March 2018 – A total of 98,508 vehicles were offered for sale to customers in all regions of the Czech Republic in the second month of this year. These cars were most commonly priced at CZK 138,000. The vehicles for sale in February were slightly newer than in January, with the age falling from 9.6 years to 9.4 years. The number of kilometres on the clock fell by 300 km, to 155,000 kilometres. AAA AUTO, which has monitored the used car market constantly for several years, has started to use a different data processing method. Instead of average values it takes the so-called median into consideration, which has a higher interpretive value and characterises the used car market even more accurately.

The price of the most frequently advertised vehicles rose slightly in February, which was reflected in the offer of newer vehicles (9.4 years) with fewer kilometres on the clock, even though the reduction was only 300 km (to 155,000 km). Czech used car dealers and private individuals offered approximately 16 thousand vehicles less (98,508) than in January. “We must expect that compared to other months of the year, which are two to three days longer, February statistics are always approximately 10% lower, particularly with regard to the number of cars being offered for sale,“ commented AAA AUTO dealer network managing director Karolína Topolová, explaining the drop in the number of cars offered in February. As usual, most vehicles were offered for sale in the capital city (20,556), while the smallest number of vehicles were offered to customers in the Karlovy Vary Region (2,354).

Diesel engines were fitted to 62.5% of the 98,508 cars advertised. As a result the proportion of diesel cars rose slightly in February compared to the preceding month. However, the ratio of diesel to petrol engines is gradually equalising on the used car market in the Czech Republic. However, as the biggest used car dealer in the country confirms, demand remains highest for petrol engines. “This results in two conflicting trends; a slight rise in imports of cheaper diesels with more kilometres on the odometer, particularly from Germany, and simultaneous growth in demand for nearly new petrol cars, which we also registered in the sales statistics of our Mototechna brand, where 75% of customers are asking for these cars,” Topolová explained, adding that, “In relation to the stricter regulation of emission zones under consideration in Germany, we expect that there will be a rapid increase in unsatisfactory vehicles being exported to the Czech Republic as a result of the ruling by the German court allowing a prohibition on diesel cars in towns and cities. We do not expect prices of imported diesels to decline significantly. In our opinion, diesel vehicles from Germany will hold their prices, because other factors also come into play. People also pay attention to known servicing history and verifiability of the number of kilometres on the clock, which is usually only available for vehicles coming from Germany. These are the vehicles that we chiefly focus on.“

The Škoda Octavia remains the most popular model in the imaginary TOP 10, with 9,929 of these offered for sale in the Czech Republic. The next vehicle down in the Škoda range, the Fabia, came second with 6,821 cars offered for sale. The Volkswagen Passat came third with 3,060 cars for sale.