From January to May of this year, sales of cars under seven years old decreased by 7.3 percent, to 440 thousand units, Autostat calculated. In total, “seven-year plans” make up 19 percent of the market structure, although before that they confidently occupied a fifth or more of it. Analysts attribute the trend to the fact that Russians are driving their existing cars longer – especially the relatively new Europeans, Japanese and Koreans.
Russians buying new cars are increasingly trading in cars with an average age of about 10 years, dealers say. Many of them are still not ready to switch to Chinese ones, and cannot buy a new car from Europe, Japan or Korea.
The high rate of the Central Bank, due to which loans have become less accessible, also prevents people from changing cars more often.
In order for there to be more “fresh” offers in the secondary market, it is necessary to stimulate the market for new cars. A reduction in lending rates or the introduction of benefits and installment plans would also help, representatives of the auto business believe.
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However, the situation in recent years is only a continuation of a trend that began back in 2015. Then, due to the crisis, sales of new cars fell by 36 percent, which was a record since 2009. Since then, Russia has never sold more than 2.5 million cars a year.
In May, the most popular car on the Russian secondary market was the Lada-2107, which was chosen by 12.3 thousand people. In second place is the Samara (Lada-2114) with 10.9 thousand new owners, and in third place is the Korean Kia Rio (10.6 thousand).
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