One of the most important indicators during the sale of a car is its liquidity — that is, the time from the moment of publication of the ad to the moment of signing the sales contract and directly receiving the money "in hand". The team of the Institute of Car Market Research, together with AUTO.RIA, determined how many days it takes for cars with mileage of different price categories to be sold.
First of all, it is worth understanding that all used cars are different in age, condition, mileage, equipment and price, and are sold in different regions of Ukraine. Each sales experience is unique, so BigData analytics shows the overall picture on the market — that is, on the basis of large data sets. Specialists of the Auto Market Research Institute analyzed the information of the partner, the largest automotive marketplace of Ukraine, AUTO.RIA, and determined how long used cars of different price groups are actually sold.
The data used for the study is fresh and covers the time span of the past two months. Only offers with the vehicleʼs VIN code provided by the owner were taken into account, the majority of which were 92.3% of all current ads, and based on these, the average time in days between the date the offer was created and the time it was available was determined removed with the mark "car sold". In total, more than 100,000 such ads were processed, in the price range from $1,000 to $50,000.
What sells faster?
The largest offer on the Ukrainian car market consists of the announcement of the sale of cars worth from 2 to 13 thousand dollars. More than 5,000 such offers have been recorded in each of the ranges. The highest concentration of ads, where there are more than 10 thousand of them for each price group, lies in the price range from $4 to $9 thousand.
Having analyzed the average time of sale of passenger cars for each individual price group, the experts of the Institute of Car Market Research made several important conclusions.
- The time curve of the average time of sale does not repeat the shape of the "slide" that the mass market of used cars in Ukraine looks like, so the time of sale for cars with different prices is different.
- A clear, almost linear increase in the time of sale is observed from the beginning of the price range, where, in fact, the largest number of transactions takes place, which as a result gives the highest statistical accuracy of the result. This growth actually continues up to the $20,000 mark on the price scale, after which the breakout becomes more wavy. Obviously, due to the larger amount of data: the less information about the ad in the price range, the higher the probability of errors.
- Cheapest vehicles sell faster. Cars from the initial price segment, up to $3000, on average wait for sale from 7 to 13 days.
- Cars from the most saturated part of the market (price range from $4 to $9 thousand ) on average find a new owner in 18 days. And then, along with the increase in the price of the car, the time required to sell it gradually increases: up to 19-37 days (27 on average).
- Separate attention should be paid to the "sag" of the curve with the time of sale near the $12-$13 thousand mark. This part of the market is usually saturated with cars that came from America and have a number of advantages (mileage, year of manufacture, price) over similar or similar European models. Of course, they also have disadvantages, namely, the "auction" past, that is, they received certain damages, and therefore were sold overseas "under the hammer" significantly cheaper than cars without defects. However, the interest in them is quite high, and they are sold somewhat faster, as evidenced by the given data.
What in the end?
- The cheapest cars take the least time to sell, from 7 to 13 days on average.
- In the mass market, that is, the market segment with the largest number of offers and the highest frequency of purchase and sale transactions, the average time to exchange keys for money is 17 days.
- As the price of a used car increases, so does the time it takes to find a buyer for it. Which, in the end, is quite logical, because in Ukraine most cars with mileage are bought for cash, without any credit support from banks or other financial institutions, accordingly there is a smaller number of potential buyers who can save more than 15-20 thousand dollars.
Of course, the average numbers for time of sale, even if you get them for individual price sub-segments, should not be taken as absolute, say, marking the 16th day on the calendar after creating an ad for selling a car for $5000, and not even answering the phone before that .
The time of sale of an individual car, not the average car, depends on many factors — its price in terms of prices on the market for similar/analogous models, the actual condition, the quality of the description and photos in the ad, the style of communication of the seller over the phone or during a meeting, the presence of defects in auto. As well as the transparent history of the machine, which can be checked from independent databases, the ownerʼs readiness for a technical inspection of the product at a specialized service station, and even promotion of the announcement using advertising means.
Subscribe to the Telegram channel of the Auto Market Research Institute to be the first to receive information without advertising or spam.
