Used Car Sales in Hungary May Break Last Year's Record

By the end of July, 498,800 cars had changed hands on the used car market in Hungary, 5.8% more than a year earlier, and the more active than ever before turnover indicates that last year's record of 817,000 cars sold could be broken, JóAutók.hu [‘Good cars’] reported on Friday, based on data from Datahouse.

The half a million figure means that on average, almost every eighth domestic car changed hands between January and July, the CEO of JóAutók.hu, Bertalan Halász pointed out in the statement. He added that intensive sales of around 70,000 cars per month are expected in the coming months, as the new car market is unable to meet demand at previous levels due to supply problems and used car imports are unable to meet demand at previous levels due to the worsening HUF/EUR exchange rate. A further question is what the possible phasing out of fuel price subsidies and the associated jump in running costs will mean for the final quarter of the year, he said.

According to the statement, the significant rise in prices in the used car market has also increased the number of speculative sales. In particular, prices of cars a few years old have risen by up to 15-30%.

At the same time, there is much more uncertainty in market forecasts than before, according to Bertalan Halász. The deterioration in the economic environment and the expected extra spending by households are already leading to a drop in demand. This is likely to reduce price pressure, and the market may rebalance to lower levels in the coming months. “If the used car market does set a new record, it will be solely due to the outstanding momentum of the first half of the year," the expert said.

The two most common brands in the Hungarian used car market were Opel and Volkswagen, with 57,600 (11.6%) of the former and 49,800 (10.0%) of the latter changing hands during the period. Suzuki was next in the popularity ranking with 8.5% of sales, followed by Ford with 8% and BMW with 6.5%.