Fall in used car sales

New car sales continue to soar but figures released by Car History experts Motorcheck.ie show that used car sales were down by 8 percent in the first three months of 2015, writes Trish Whelan.

Michael Rochford, managing Director of Motorcheck.ie says used car sales suffered when the recession hit just like new car sales, but they have been slowly on the rise, and 2014 experienced a jump of 7 percent, or 57,000 units on the previous year. Of the 841,000 used car sales in 2014, the vast majority were between private buyers and sellers. "However, there were almost 172,000 used cars sold by the Motor Trade to private buyers in 2014, representing an increase of 20 percent in trade business or an increase of 28,000 units sold by the Trade to private buyers last year."

He said the decrease in used car sales has hit both private sales and trade sales with decreases of 9 and 13 percent respectively. He pointed out that inter-trade transactions are up slightly whilst private trade-ins to the trade have remained steady.

"This is a worrying trend as used cars are traditionally sold in much higher numbers than new cars and it's an important component of a healthy industry. What we are seeing now is the hangover from the fallow years in new car sales resulting in a shortage of good quality 2, 3, 4 and 5-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.

"What this all means for the consumer is less choice and availability and the knock-on effect is that prices of used cars are remaining steady, so it's a seller's market. In these situations, people feel under pressure to complete a deal and can make rash decisions, so always perform the necessary checks even if it seems like you might lose a rare deal."

Figures from Motorcheck.ie also show that the top makes imported for the first three months of this year were Ford, Volkswagen, Vauxhall (Opel here) and Audi.

Top models imported so far this year were the Ford Focus followed by the Volkswagen Passat, Volkswagen Golf and Vauxhall Insignia.

Fall in used car sales

New car sales continue to soar but figures released by Car History experts Motorcheck.ie show that used car sales were down by 8 percent in the first three months of 2015.

Michael Rochford, Managing Director of Motorcheck.ie says used car sales suffered when the recession hit just like new car sales, but they have been slowly on the rise, and 2014 experienced a jump of 7 percent, or 57,000 units on the previous year.

Of the 841,000 used car sales in 2014, the vast majority were between private buyers and sellers. "However, there were almost 172,000 used cars sold by the Motor Trade to private buyers in 2014, representing an increase of 20 percent in trade business or an increase of 28,000 units sold by the Trade to private buyers last year."

He said the decrease in used car sales has hit both private sales and trade sales with decreases of 9 and 13 percent respectively. He pointed out that inter-Trade transactions are up slightly whilst private trade-ins to the trade have remained steady.

"This is a worrying trend as used cars are traditionally sold in much higher numbers than new cars and it's an important component of a healthy industry. What we are seeing now is the hangover from the fallow years in new car sales resulting in a shortage of good quality 2, 3, 4 and 5-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.

"What this all means for the consumer is less choice and availability and the knock-on effect is that prices of used cars are remaining steady, so it's a seller's market. In these situations, people feel under pressure to complete a deal and can make rash decisions, so always perform the necessary checks even if it seems like you might lose a rare deal."

New car sales continue to soar

New car sales were up by 18 percent in the first 10 days of 2015 whilst the number of used cars imported declined.

The latest figures on new car sales released by Car History experts Motorcheck.ie show the number of new cars registered in the first 10 days of 2015 has increased by more than 18 percent on the same period for 2014 with an additional 1,747 units sold. This is despite the fact that 2014 was the best year for new car sales since 2008 with sales of more than 96,000 units.

Most commentators are predicting new car sales of between 105,000 and 115,000 units for this year. On the other hand, used cars imported into the country in the first 10 days of 2015 were down 16 percent for the same period in 2014.

'Car clocking costs Irish Consumer up to €60m p.a.'

The European Parliament's Transport Committee is calling for a pan-European mileage database in an attempt to stamp out a practice that could be costing consumers up to €9.6bn annually across the EU.

According to research carried out by Car History Check experts Motorcheck.ie, the practice of clocking in Ireland is still widespread, despite being criminalised for the first time in Ireland in February of this year. Clocking involves winding back the odometer reading on a vehicle for the purpose of artificially inflating its value. The now illegal practice is thought to be costing the Irish Consumer between €40-€60m each year in inflated car values according to Motorcheck.

Now, however, Fine Gael MEP for Ireland South and member of the European Parliament’s Transport Committee, Deirdre Clune, has called for pan-European action on ‘clocking’ which is estimated to be costing European Consumers between €5.6-€9.6bn per annum.

Ms Clune said she would be asking the Transport Commissioner Maroš Šefcovic to prioritise the proposals for an EU based statutory mileage database that would share readings collected across the EU from official sources such as NCT centres and Revenue.