Last year, both the sale of 0 km cars and that of used cars ended with positive cumulative numbers. But in the last months of 2023, the alarms that are ringing now were already beginning to go off.
The sale of used cars in Argentina closed last year with a total of 1,654,395 units, which ultimately represents an increase of 5.3% compared to 2022, in which 1,570,784 vehicles had been sold.
Now a report prepared by a large vehicle buying and selling platform has become known, which provides numerous data that the replacement market sector had during the last half of 2023.
In it information appears such as consumer preference regarding the most sought after models and those that depreciate the least or until gender parity at the time of registering the vehicle.
In Argentina during the second half of 2023, 1,058,872 sales of new and used cars were registered, an increase of 8.9% (86,455 units) compared to the same period of the previous year.
In this period, 856,812 used vehicles were sold, which represents 80.9% of the total; and 202,060 0km units, which is equivalent to 19.1%. An increase of 8.6% is observed in used sales and a 9.7% increase in the sale of 0 km.
Curiosities in the sale of used
“During this period, we witnessed two major devaluations: in August, 17.9% and in December, 54%. In this context, the automobile proved to be a solid refuge of value and many Argentines took advantage of the opportunity for a reliable and profitable investment in times of financial turbulence,” said Jaime Macaya, CEO of Kavak in South America, the platform that prepared the report.
This is a company that markets vehicles no more than 10 years old and with less than 100,000 kilometers traveled, so it shows a part of the market, in which the models most sought after by consumers appear.
One of the striking data that the report revealed is the gender parity that were recorded in the operations: in the second semester, 46% of the operations were carried out by women and 54% by men.
On the other hand, it also reflected different behaviors regarding the possibility of taking out debt depending on the age of the users. The purchase of cars in Argentina, especially used ones, became naturalized with cash operations. However, a few financing options appear.
The Ford Focus III was the most sought after on the platform.Given this alternative, it was detected that the Young people between 26 and 35 years old are the ones who use financing the most to buy a vehicle, while people between 36 and 45 years old are the ones who most use a car as part of the payment.
The platform allows you to search on its website by make, model, year and type of transmission, among multiple other variables. The results of these searches showed that the Ford Focus III turned out to be the most desired by consumers, followed by the Toyota Corolla, Ford EcoSport, Peugeot 208, Volkswagen Gol Trend, Toyota Etios, Chevrolet Cruze II, Ford Fiesta and the Chevrolet Onix and Tracker .
However, the best sellers on the platform during the second half of last year were the 208, the Etios and the Gol Trend. The Peugeot climbed from third place in the first half to first place, and dethroned the Toyota model.
The Peugeot 208 was the best-selling car in the second half of last year.In addition, the majority of buyers chose the Hatchback silhouette (5 doors): 57% bought that model, while 20% decided on a sedan, another 20% on SUVs and 3% on pickups.
Among other general curiosities, it was recorded that white continues to be the most chosen color, with 25.4%, followed by gray with 22%; and that cars with a manual transmission continue to represent a vast majority: only 3 out of 10 purchases represented models with an automatic transmission.
Kavak’s report also showed that the Renault Kwid, the Peugeot 208, the Toyota Corolla, the Ford Ka and the Volkswagen Gol Trend are the 5 least undervalued cars on the list of the most purchased in 2023.