Over 640,000 used cars sold in Ireland during 2018
The number of used cars being sold in the country is down 3.6% year-on-year, according to the new DoneDeal Motor Industry review for 2018, released today by Ireland’s largest motor website – DoneDeal.ie, sponsored by Bluestone Motor Finance.
A total of 640,326 used cars traded hands last year, compared to 664,253 for the same period in 2017.
Volkswagen was the most popular used car make of 2018, with a total of 87,992 Volkswagen’s changing hands in the used car market. Volkswagen’s share of the used car market now stands at 13.8%. Toyota (73,834) and Ford (71,882) were next best with Nissan (49,938) and then Audi (37,714) rounding out the top five.
DoneDeal has also revealed the top used makes and models that have retained their value the most from when they were new in 2015. The car that maintained its value the most since 2015 is the Skoda Octavia with an average depreciation of 22%. Next, is the Volkswagen Golf (27%), followed by the Ford Focus (36%).
Meanwhile, interest in Electric and Hybrid vehicles continues to increase with over 2 million Electric car searches taking place on DoneDeal in 2018, compared to just under 950,0000 for the same period last year – a rise of 110%. Hybrid searches are up 83% year-on-year.
During December and January DoneDeal surveyed over 1,000 people looking to purchase a car and found more than half (51%) of those surveyed were interested in purchasing a diesel engine.60% of people said they would trade-in their car when buying their next, while one out of three people said they would prefer to sell their old vehicle privately.
Martin Clancy from DoneDeal said: “Of the 70 million+ car searches that took place on DoneDeal in 2018 a clear trend is emerging. Electric car searches surged 110% compared with 2017; Hybrid searches are up 83% while Diesel dipped by 14% during the same period. The decline in interest in Diesel is a reflection in consumer search behaviour, nationwide, 20% fewer new Diesel’s were sold in 2018 compared with a year prior. However, of the 675,000 car ads on DoneDeal last year – 51% were for cars with Diesel engines.”
