Revealed: The used cars that retain their value the most

• Skoda Octavia named as the car that retains its value the best
• Volkswagen the most popular used car brand
• Electric car searches rocket 228% in a year 

View the full report here.

The number of used cars being sold in the country is down 5% year-on-year, according to the new DoneDeal.ie Motor Industry review for the first half of 2018, released today by Ireland's largest motor website – DoneDeal.ie, sponsored by Bluestone Motor Finance.

A total of 483,152 used cars have traded hands in the year to June, compared to 507,300 for the same time period in 2017, however the rate of the decline slowed considerably in the second quarter with a difference of only 305 car sales (217,334 in Q2 2017 vs. 217,029 in Q2 2018).

As part of the report, DoneDeal.ie carried out depreciation analysis on used cars to identify the top five makes and models that have retained their value the most from when they were new in 2014/15.

The car that retained its value the most was the Skoda Octavia with an average deprecation of 31% since 2014/2015. Next best was the Volkswagen Golf (32%), followed by the Nissan Qashqai (40%), Volkswagen Passat (46%) and the Ford Focus (49%).

Meanwhile, Electric car ads on DoneDeal have surged in recent months, with a 58% increase compared to the first six months of 2017, Hybrid listings have risen by 65% in the same time period while Petrol listings are down 17% with Diesel ads up 11% to 215,937 units.

Electric car searches have also sky-rocketed with over 1 million searches taking place for Electric cars in the first six months of 2018, compared to 350,000 for the same time period last year – a rise of 223%.

Volkswagen is the most popular used car make of 2018,with a total of 48,166 Volkswagen’s changing hands in the used car market (Jan-Jun 2018). Toyota (41,412) and Ford (40,018) were next best with Nissan (23,954) and then Audi (20,173) rounding out the top five.

During May and June DoneDeal.ie surveyed over 1,000 people looking to purchase a car and found that 57% of respondents were interested in purchasing a vehicle that was four years or older, with just 13% in the market for a brand new motor. Among those surveyed, Diesel’s were the strong preference when it came to engine type (63%) with 24% opting for a Petrol engine, while the remainder were split between Hybrid and Electric transmissions.

Adam Ferguson from DoneDeal.ie said: “In the last six months alone we’ve witnessed over 31 million car searches taking place on site. One of the most interesting stories from the data in this report is the clear trend that is emerging in the Electric car market, both from the number of users who are searching for Electric cars but also from the sharp increase in the volume of Electric car ads being placed. For instance, at the top end of the used Electric car market, 13 second hand Tesla’s were sold on DoneDeal in the year to the end of June.”