German brands dominate Britain’s online used car market in sales and searches

Analysis of online used car buying trends reveals that German brands have dramatically extended their lead in sales and searches by motorists during the second half of 2020.

The online car supermarket BuyaCar.co.uk has found that German brands grew their share among the 10 most popular cars from 52.4 per cent in the first six months of the year to a whopping 71.7 per cent in the months since July 1.

German cars also continue to dominate searches, consistently taking eight of the 10 top slots for cars that motorists have in mind when they arrive at BuyaCar.co.uk.

Used car search data also reveals that German car brands are most likely to win ‘conquest sales’ – where customers begin looking for one make but end up choosing another. For example, the fifth most searched for car is the Ford Fiesta but it only just manages to scrape into the top 10 for actual sales. However, the Ford Focus fares better in securing fifth place in sales compared to seventh place for searches.

BuyaCar.co.uk believes that the phenomenal performance of German cars in the second-hand market is driven by two main factors – unbeatable brand image and particularly desirable cars being unexpectedly affordable in PCP finance monthly payment terms. High resale values help keep monthly payments low, despite typically higher headline purchase prices.

The dominance of German brands in the online second-hand car market during the latter half of 2020 is remarkable. So far in 2020 just four German models feature in the top 10 new car sales chart, while five appear in the BuyaCar.co.uk top 10. But since the end of June seven of BuyaCar’s top 10 cars are from Mercedes-Benz, Audi, BMW and Volkswagen.

The success of German brands is spearheaded by Mercedes-Benz, with the A-Class and C-Class representing almost one in ten of all cars sold by the online car supermarket this year and the A-Class consistently holding the title of most popular car overall.

When it comes to searches, almost one in five people arrive on the site specifically looking for a Volkswagen Golf, Mercedes A-Class or C-Class or an Audi A3. Of all make and model searches this year on BuyaCar.co.uk 49.4 per cent have been for the four main German brands. That’s from a grand total of 440 makes and models from all manufacturers searched for by visitors to the website.

Christofer Lloyd, editor of BuyaCar.co.uk, said: “From the trends we are seeing since the summer, it seems that second-hand customers are becoming increasingly single-minded when it comes to their car brands of choice.

“We believe that the key to this is the continuing appeal of low PCP finance monthly payments, which mean that consumers will often look past a typically higher headline price once they realise that the Mercedes, Audi, BMW or Volkswagen they always really wanted is unexpectedly affordable – thanks to high resale values at the end of the finance contract.

“This combination of enduring strong image and low monthly payments is undoubtedly the reason why just four brands are able to win the lion’s share of used car sales, even when people initially arrived looking for something like a Ford Focus or a Vauxhall Astra.”