Germans refrain from buying new cars

In Germany, used car sales in January were up 6.9 percent year-on-year. It's no surprise that the first month of the year is always significantly stronger than the previous December - in other words, the 26.2 percent increase that the KBA reports as an increase over the previous month is just a formality. The new car market remains weak: -2.8 percent year-on-year and -7.6 percent compared to December supapa egr wahler pret.

Germans refrain from buying new cars

But where is the used car market in Germany heading? 2025 will not be an easy year for the entire automotive industry. Uncertainty regarding customs duties, excise duties and changes in the country's political map are causing people to refrain from purchasing instead of making them. If consumers ultimately decide to purchase, they do so primarily on the used car market, because there they could find a solution for affordable mobility much more easily than on the new car market.

New car dealers are increasingly starting to “play” with used cars. In the study for the DAT Report 2025, we found that the market share of used cars has increased again overall, with their prices remaining stable – i.e., large discounts are only achieved in very rare cases. Towards the end of 2024, there was even a slight decrease in the level of discount compared to the last offer price. This applies both to all types of drives in general and to electric models in particular. Specifically, for used electric cars, in some cases an even smaller discount is given than for cars with internal combustion engines. It is likely that dealers have oriented the prices of this type of vehicle more directly to the market situation.

From KBA data, we know that slightly more used electric cars were sold in Germany in 2024 than new ones. If buyers choose this type of drive, they are usually willing to pay the price offered for it.

And back to the KBA data: the SUV and off-road segments remain very popular – in January alone, they accounted for 44 percent of all new car registrations. Demand for SUVs is also very strong on the second-hand market. Our own DAT segmentation is a little more detailed than that of the KBA and allowed us to establish that despite the popularity of SUVs as used cars, their residual value is not far from that of other segments. And in the past, residual values of SUVs have always been higher than those of classic segments (e.g. C).

Car parts AutoPower
Car parts AutoPower

But where is the used car market in Germany heading? 2025 will not be an easy year for the entire automotive industry

New car dealers are increasingly starting to “play” with used cars