Istanbul Gelisim University - Second-hand opportunism in car sales: they put license plates and sell at high price

Second-hand opportunism in car sales: they put license plates and sell at high price

Opportunists who collect new vehicles from demanding dealers and put license plates sells them at a higher price as ‘second hand new car’. Experts said that since zero vehicles, which are difficult to supply under the influence of coronavirus, are hard to find in the market, customers lean to the sellers of second-hand zero vehicles. In the first 4 months of 2020, 9 percent of sales were made from the used car dealers.

“CUSTOMER DOES NOT WANT TO WAIT FOR A NEW CAR”

Automobile factories interrupted production during the coronavirus process. Therefore, there were problems in new car supply. The demand for new car increased as the loan interest rates decreased. Stating that in 2020, automobile manufacturers have experienced transportation problems in shipping, especially under the influence of coronavirus, Automotive Engineer Lect. Mahmut Nedim Tansu (MSc) from Istanbul Gelisim University said: “Production troubles prevent new car arrival to Turkey. Therefore, vehicles bought by used car sellers before or beginning of 2020 have been launched. When those who want to buy new car go to the distributors, a forward date is given for the sale. The customer leans to the used car sellers because s/he does not want to wait and the seller do the selling. Normally, prices should be lower in the used car market than new ones. When the customer cannot find a new car at the distributor, s/he turns to the dealers, they sell the cars more than the sales figure at the distributor. They say to the customer that they cannot supply the car and that prices will increase further. The customer buys the car eventually because there is no car at the distributor.”

“HIGH VOLATILITY AT CAR SALES”

Automotive seller Hasan Zengin spoke: “The 2019 model new car with license plate on the internet are sold at least 15-20 thousand liras above the price of the 2020 model brand new ones at the distributor. People cannot find new car at the distributors or does not want to wait for the car to arrive for 1 month, s/he goes and buys car with license plate. The prices of the car are quite high, even we cannot get the same cars from the price we sell. There has been some stagnation in the past 15 days due to the SCT rumors, but prices are volatile.”

“THE PRICE OF THE SECOND HAND CARS ARE OVER NEW ONES”

Saying that he is looking for a second hand car but the prices are high, customer Mesut Öztürk said: “There is no new car left at the distributors. Prices have increased as demand increased for the second hand. While a new car cost 210 thousand liras, now its second hand become 230 thousand. I am not looking for new car since they are out of stock. You need to put your name in the list and wait. Currently, distributors cannot even say the price of new cars. They put 30-40 thousand liras more in automobile prices. A car we can buy for 70 thousand liras is now 130 thousand liras. I am looking for a car for 150-200 thousand liras, and if I could find one budget-friendly, I will buy.”