While new car buyers are keen to have the latest registration plate, hence causing a clear peak in annual sales, you’d expect that used vehicle sales are less predictable.
However, analysis of transaction data for the past five years by Cartell.ie confirms that, consistently, the first or second Tuesday of every February is the busiest day of the year for used car sales.
Several factors are thought to influence this:
First up, as most new car sales take place in the first months of the year, there’s usually good stock of traded-in used models available.
Why Tuesday? Probably because buyers use Monday to sort out payment, raising bank drafts etc.
Alongside this, Carzone’s own data reveals that the busiest day for car searches every year is the fourth Monday in January.
It appears that buyers are making their decisions quickly. When the search data is further analysed that’s perhaps no surprise, as a large number of searches (37%) include make, model and year.
It would appear that Irish buyers clearly know what they’re looking for!
Top tip: Buy on condition, mileage and history over year of registration.
It appears that we don’t waste our employer’s time by searching during work time.
While searches are quite spread out during the day, there’s a clear increase in traffic later on, with a peak between 8pm and 10pm for desktop users.
When they turn their computers off it appears they can’t help themselves, as mobile users of the Carzone App and website are at their most active between 10pm and midnight.
Top Tips
- Buck the trend and you could be in a stronger position to haggle on the price. In the week running up to Christmas Day, for instance, few cars are sold.
- This is backed up by the fact that about 35% of our surveyed users bought their current car from a private seller and 58% bought their current car from a franchise or an independent dealer.