Sad holiday: Russians are buying up used cars
Last year, 6.24 million used cars were sold in Russia. This is a record figure for almost two decades. Such indicators indicate serious problems in the automotive market, according to industry experts. The details are in the Izvestia article.
The market is breaking records
Sales of used cars in 2025 increased in Russia by 3.3% compared to the previous year. Such data is provided by the analytical agency Autostat. In total, almost 6.24 million used cars were sold in the country last year. This is the highest figure in 19 years of monitoring the secondary car market, the agency notes.
According to Sergey Tselikov, General Director of Autostat, the weighted average price of a used car increased by 2% over the year and amounted to 1.2 million rubles. At the same time, Russians spent 7.5 trillion rubles on the purchase of used cars last year, which is 5% more than in 2024.
Lada retains its leadership in the Russian secondary market: 1.53 million used cars of this brand were purchased last year. Toyota is in second place with a score of 624.8 thousand cars. Kia and Hyundai are next (358.8 thousand and 343.1 thousand cars, respectively), and Nissan closes the top five (272.9 thousand cars). These five brands accounted for almost half of all transactions in the used car market.
The top 10 also includes Volkswagen (261 thousand cars), Chevrolet (219 thousand cars), Honda (207.7 thousand cars), Renault (207.5 thousand cars) and BMW (184.3 thousand cars).
In the "personal standings", AVTOVAZ's "seven" retained the first place — 142.3 thousand cars. Kia Rio won silver (120.9 thousand cars), Hyundai Solaris won bronze (118.2 thousand cars). This is followed by Lada 2114 Samara-2, which sold 112.4 thousand units, and closes the top five most popular Ford Focus models on the secondary market — 107.1 thousand units.
The top ten also includes Lada 4x4 Niva (105 thousand cars), Lada 2170 Priora (101.8 thousand cars), Toyota Corolla (99.9 thousand cars), Toyota Camry (87.9 thousand cars), and Lada 2190 Granta (84.7 thousand cars).
And the import is still there
As noted by Sergey Tselikov, CEO of Autostat, domestic brand models accounted for 27.2% of all used cars sold last year, the Japanese had 25.7% of the secondary market, the Germans had a share of 13.4%, and the Koreans had 13.3%. Used models from China accounted for 4.5% of the entire secondary market, but they showed the largest increase compared to the year before last — by 43.8%.
While cars older than ten years account for 70% of transactions in the market as a whole, the situation is completely opposite for used Chinese cars: 64.4% in this category are cars manufactured in 2021-2025, said Sergey Tselikov.
At the same time, the vast majority of transactions in the secondary car market (92%) accounted for the so—called internal re-registrations - cars that were already registered in our country. And only the remaining 8% are used models imported into the Russian Federation from abroad.
My dear old people
The record for used car sales set last year reflects a rather difficult situation on the car market as a whole, according to Maxim Kadakov, editor-in-chief of Za Rulem magazine. The increase in sales of used models is a consequence of falling demand in the segment of new cars, he stressed.
— With a noticeable decline in sales of new models, the demand for used cars is growing. At the same time, the bulk of transactions on the secondary market are for cars older than 10 years. In fact, Russians are just reselling old cars to each other. This makes the already bleak picture of the average age of the Russian fleet even sadder. The fleet of cars in the country is aging literally before our eyes," Maxim Kadakov told Izvestia.
The editor-in-chief of Za Rulem noted that imports of used cars increased slightly last year, but this did not particularly affect the overall situation. According to him, 8% of used cars imported from abroad are "a drop in the bucket" against the background of the total volume of the secondary market. According to his forecasts, this year sales of used cars will remain "approximately at the current level, plus or minus five percent."
In world practice, the ratio of the number of new and used cars sold at the level of 1:4 is considered quite dangerous and indicates a serious bias in demand, said Igor Morzharetto, a member of the presidium of the Public Council under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. The result of last year shows that this bias is even more pronounced in the Russian market, he emphasizes.
— It's easy to calculate that we have almost six used cars for every new car sold. This is not a very good indicator, which leads to an increase in the average age of cars in our country. At the same time, a significant part of cars sold on the secondary market are cars without ABS and ESP, with a minimum number of airbags or without them at all. The tactical condition of such vehicles is also far from ideal. This further complicates the already difficult task of reducing road deaths by one and a half times by 2030 and by two times by 2036," said Igor Morzharetto.
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