New car sales recovery hides collapse in used sales

With new car sales up by almost a third so far this year, over and above the reasonably healthy sales of 2014, you could be forgiven for thinking that all is rosy in the Irish car market. Forgiven, but wrong – the rise in new sales is hiding something of a crisis in used car sales, which have fallen by a disastrous with per cent so far this year.

The eight per cent figure is made up of a nine per cent fall in sales from the trade to private buyers, and a 13 per cent fall in intra-trade sales.

"This is a worrying trend indeed as the used cars are traditionally sold in much higher volume than new cars and it's a very important component of a healthy industry" said Michael Rochford, Managing Director of Motorcheck.ie. "What we are seeing now is the hangover from the fallow years in new car sales resulting a shortage of good quality two, three, four, and five year old stock, combined with the shift in exchange rates which makes importing stock from the UK not as attractive as it was last year" he continued.

Used cars imported from the UK have also been increasing year on year and this has been plugging the gap in used stock to a certain extent. The used stock shortage is now being magnified because used imports from the UK have also decreased.

"What this all means for the consumer is less choice and availability" said Rochford; "and the knock-on effect is that prices of used cars are remaining steady and not depreciating at the rates you would expect, so it's very much a seller's market" he continued. "Unfortunately what we tend to see in these situations is that people feel under pressure to complete a deal and can make rash decisions. We would urge anyone buying a used car to always perform the necessary checks even if it seems like you might lose a rare deal" he concluded.

The problem is not just an industry one either. A dearth of good used cars in the system is also a serious issue for those on lower incomes, who cannot afford a new car, and who rely on the used market for transport.