Buying a used car now costs twice as much as it did 10 years ago

 

The average price of a used vehicle has climbed to more than 20,000 euros and has marked a historic high this September 2023.

They call it an opportunity, but they are less and less of an opportunity. The second-hand vehicle market has been on the rise for months and is reaching record numbers. Now, in Catalonia, buying a second-hand car costs 21,242 euros on average , according to data from the specialist portal Coches.net.

These prices, however, do not seem to slow down the market. On the contrary, used vehicle sales have already recovered pre-pandemic figures.

Part of this increase is explained by the end of the crisis due to the lack of microchips , which has allowed new "young" second-hand cars to be added to dealerships.

In the month of October, nearly 36,000 second-hand cars and SUVs were sold in Catalonia , 63% more than in the same month last year, according to Fecavem, the Catalan employer of vehicle distribution. And if we look at the total for the year, registrations are close to 256,000, 20% more than in the same period in 2022.

Buying a car costs twice as much as it did 10 years ago

Sales go up and prices go up. Last month, the average price of a used vehicle in Catalonia exceeded 21,200 euros, 4% more than last year.

And in September it was even higher. In fact, this month marked a record price in Spain , with an average of 20,764 euros.

If we look back, the inflation of the used market becomes evident. Buying a car in 2013 cost, on average, 10,964 euros , practically half of what it is now.

And Catalonia is not one of the most expensive communities in which to buy a second-hand vehicle. Here it costs a thousand euros more on average than in the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Country, but almost a thousand less than in Murcia, the region which, surprisingly, leads the ranking of the highest prices with 22,112 euros, 700 above Madrid.

All Prices Up: How Much Does Each Car Cost?

Whether you're buying an old car or a nearly new one, all ranges have seen price increases in the last year. Of course, as a general rule the older, the less increase.

♦ Semi-new cars , which are less than 12 months old, grow by 6%. They cost 40,143 euros on average.

♦ Those between 1 and 3 years go up less -- by 2.7% -- and cost 29,230 euros.

♦ The second biggest increase is for second-hand vehicles between 4 and 5 years old : the price increases by 4% to 23,586 euros.

♦ The 6 to 10 year olds have become more expensive by 2.1% and cost 18,048 euros.

♦ Cars over ten years old stagnate at 9,059 euros with an imperceptible annual increase of 0.2%.

Hybrids and electrics stick out

As for the type of cars, the increase in the offer of electric and hybrids attracts attention. Although still very much in the minority, sales have more than doubled in a year. 

On the other hand, the offer for combustion cars falls, both diesel (-10.7%) and gasoline (-6.4%).

What are the brands that sell the most?

Seat, Volkswagen and Peugeot are the three brands with the most used vehicles sold. Renault and Citroën are in fourth and fifth place.

And for models, the classics seem to never die. According to Coches.net, the most sold in October was the Volkswagen Golf (with an average age of 15.2 years). The list of the five best sellers is completed by the Renault Mégane (15 years old), the Seat Ibiza (14.4 years), the Seat León (12.6 years) and the Ford Focus (14.2 years).

The weekend of the occasion

This weekend, the Fira de Barcelona has become a huge dealership, with 2,500 semi-new cars, most of them less than 4 years old, from 40 different brands.

It is the Occasion Hall , which until this Sunday expects to receive more than 11,000 visitors. A place to pick, shuffle and check how the market for these vehicles is doing.