What are the most popular passenger cars in the domestic market? Top 10 brands and models of 2025
The past year 2025 was a period of some correction for domestic resales of used cars. In total, Ukrainians concluded 895,593 purchase and sale transactions, which is 18.9% less than a year earlier. The market has shrunk somewhat, but has not lost its drive.
December was especially interesting, as it showed an anomalous growth of almost 80 thousand transactions. Formally, this looks like “plus 110%” compared to December 2024, but we should be realistic here. Last year, during this period, the service centers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs had serious technical problems with databases, so registrations practically stopped. So this year’s December surge is not only an attempt to catch up with the change in tax rules in 2026, but also, to some extent, “deferred demand” and stable operation of the system.
The domestic market volumes in the diagram are shown in the upper (blue) part of the columns, and in the lower (orange) part — the volumes of imports of used cars, which we will soon examine in detail in a separate publication.
Brand rating
Volkswagen has remained the unassailable leader in the brand rankings for many years in a row. Its double-digit lead over its closest rival is reminiscent of Michael Schumacherʼs dominance in his Formula 1 prime — itʼs simply impossible to catch up with the German giant in Ukraine.
Behind the scenes, the situation is much more interesting. Renault confidently holds second place, but in the rearview mirrors you constantly see the clumsy and sometimes rusty silhouette of the VAZ. This brand, even losing parts on the go, is not going to give up. The only thing that keeps the Lada in the top is its penny price, which is often lower than the cost of a mid-range smartphone, and the critical need of people for at least some mobility. For many, it becomes a choice without a choice: either “this” or on foot.
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Against this background, the presence of BMW above the standard of practicality of Skoda and the legendary reliability of Toyota looks like a challenge to logic. But in Ukraine, emotions often win over calculation. Someone finally realizes a childhood dream, and someone simply wants “to be better than their neighbor”. Supporters of the Bavarian brand are not alone here — they are followed by a whole cohort of Audi and Mercedes-Benz fans, who in the end turned out to be even more than pragmatic buyers of Ford or Hyundai.
Most of those who choose the premium segment, aged around 20, are usually aware of the investments they will be making in the future. From a rational point of view, a new or almost new Renault Logan is clearly the winner here. However, what rationality can we talk about when what you read about in magazines as a schoolboy can now be yours for the price of the same Logan?
Model rating
If we look at specific models, the list is headed by the Volkswagen Passat, which has become a true symbol of a successful Ukrainian in the secondary market. Right behind it is the eternal Daewoo Lanos, which refuses to age and continues to be the main "entrance ticket" to the world of its own car. The Skoda Octavia and Volkswagen Golf only confirm that versatility and proven design are what people are most willing to pay money for.
In the second half of the top ten , Renault Megane, the executive BMW 5 Series and the more compact 3 Series, as well as Ford Focus, Audi A6 and Opel Astra, are located. This is the backbone of the market, which provides the lionʼs share of all transportation in the country, and which once again confirms the assumption that the share of romantics and pragmatists in our country is close to 50/50, as is the number of those who chose the Astra and A6.
Elite and luxury: not just Porsche
The segment of expensive exotics also did not stand still in 2025. The most popular among premium brands remains Porsche — more than three thousand units changed hands. This brand has become a kind of bridge between serial cars and true exclusivity.
As for truly rare things, last year Ukrainians resold over a hundred Bentleys and fifty Rolls-Royces. Italian style was represented by one and a half hundred Maseratis and two dozen Lamborghinis. For lovers of British sophistication, there were two dozen Aston Martins, and true gourmets became three new McLaren owners and eleven Ferrari connoisseurs. Even such an ultra-premium as Maybach found five buyers. This indicates that the luxury car market lives by its own rules, where external economic factors are of secondary importance.
Expertʼs comment
Stanislav Buchatsky, Head of the Institute for Car Market Research:
"The car market is a single organism. What models we see in the "tops" of domestic resales directly depends on sales of new cars and, which is critically important for Ukraine, on the import of used cars."
If you compare 2025 with the previous year, the ranking seems familiar. But try to remember what the "top" was, say, in 2015. Then, in addition to the "Lanos", various "vases" and cargo "pies" dominated, which were hastily converted into passenger cars somewhere in Berdychiv.
The result of 2025 shows: the import of used cars has actually replaced a huge part of the old fleet and significantly improved its quality. Because in a conventional "Passat", even if it is 20 years old, there is at least a probability that the airbag is in place. In "Zhiguli" it is not provided in principle, even from the factory.
And all this did not happen by itself. This is the result of the painstaking work of those who changed the legislation in 2016 and 2018 — including the IDA team. It was these changes that gave the start to the market in the form we know it now. We should not forget about the short but very indicative period of "zero customs clearance" in 2022. I am sure that on our way to the European Union, no less interesting transformations await the market ahead."
Garage memories
Ostap Novitskyʼs column
While some participants in the domestic market of 2025 argue about electronic assistants and software updates (or simply annoy the owner with a wink of the Check Engine light), others quietly arrived from the time when the car was a mechanical statement of worldview. Without subscriptions, without updates — but with character. Here are some of the most interesting, in the opinion of the IDA team, examples that became the subjects of purchase and sale transactions on our "secondary" market last year:
- BMW 326 (1939)
This black sedan arrived in a world that still believed that rationality and progress could explain everything. In 1939, Albert Einstein wrote a letter to Roosevelt about nuclear research, The Wizard of Oz was released, and BMW was building a car for people who believed that the future should be well-designed.
The BMW 326 doesn’t scream status — it implies it. An inline six, independent front suspension, a restrained design without unnecessary decor. This is a car from an era when an engineer was still more important than a marketer. In a few years, these cars will become trophies, and factories will become the subject of geopolitics, but the idea itself will remain: quality survives any regime. In the market of 2025, this sounded unexpectedly relevant.
- Mercedes-Benz 170V (1938)
The MB 170 V was born at a time when the world did not yet know the words “supply chain crisis”, but already felt that stability was a fragile thing. In 1938, Orson Welles scared America with the radio play “War of the Worlds”, and Mercedes created a car for those who do not panic.
This is not a dream car, this is a work car. Simplicity, maintainability, predictability. That is why after the war it was the 170 V that would become the foundation of the brandʼs revival.
In turbulent times, the market does not rely on flagships, but on those who simply go. In 2025, this formula worked flawlessly again.
- ZiS-101 (1939)
But here the car ceases to be a means of transport and becomes a statement. The ZiS-101 is a car from the grand entrance of history. Big, heavy, black. In the year of its release, commercial jet flights first appeared, and in the USSR they created a car that should look "like theirs", but live by its own rules.
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This is a copy of the American dream, adapted to Soviet reality: no market, no choice, but with access lists. These cars were not bought — they were awarded.
Today, the ZiS-101 looks like a museum piece, but its lesson is alive: when a car becomes a symbol of a system, it ceases to be part of the market. And this logic is not outdated even in 2026.
Epilogue
Retro cars on the modern market are not nostalgia. They are a reminder. That eras change, technologies come and go, but meanings remain. In 2025, the Ukrainian domestic market was torn between pragmatism and dreams. History suggests: it is not those who promise the loudest who survive, but those who are better built.
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