At the momentbuy a used car, whether a professional seller or an individual, everyone can have doubts. Was the car properly serviced? Will defects appear quickly? It is natural to be cautious. But do the French, in general, more cautious than buyers from other countries from Europe? To find out for sure, a history specialist, according to CarVertical, did some research. 4,500 people were asked about their level of confidence in buying a used car.

Eastern countries lack confidence

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To represent the results of this research, CarVertical created a trust index. An index of 100 corresponds to an average level of trust. The lowest indicator in the studied countries is in Bulgaria, from 79.5. In addition, Eastern European countries generally do not trust used car sellers too much: Hungary is slightly better with a score of 80.5, we also note Lithuania with 81.6 and Estonia with 88. A rule that, however, has its exceptions, e.g. Czech Republic which is among the most confident countries with an index of 109.7.

According to CarVertical, Eastern European countries’ relative distrust of used car dealers is linked to the prevalence of cars with troubled histories in those countries.

In France, confidence is quite average, with the index set at 102. This is much lower than our neighbors such as Germany (109.4), and especially Great Britain (122.2). A British anomaly, which CarVertical attributes to the relative isolation of the used car market from the rest of Europe, requires right-hand drive. Therefore, the British are less inclined to cars of dubious origin.

Young people are the most suspicious!

Although the second-hand market is growing better than the new market, customers seem to be abandoning models that are less than a year old. https://t.co/9GyGN27wDI

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Fortunately, France has a free official tool to check the history of the car you want to buy. ask the seller HistoVec report : This government website lists ownership changes, successive MOTs and mileage at each inspection. Therefore, this is a good way to ensure that the meter is not tampered with. Obviously, this system hits its stride when you’re looking for an import car: so be on the lookout.

At the conclusion of this study, CarVertical also decided to publish its results by age groups. As a rule, these are young buyers (from 25 to 34 years old). most suspicious, and second-hand sellers are trusted by less than 18%. For comparison, 30.3% of people aged 35-44 trust these sellers.

Source: CarVertical