The new car market started to grow in April

According to the latest figures released by Datahouse, 10.402 new cars were registered in April this year. This represents a significant increase of 21,4 percent compared to April last year and 10,4 per cent compared to the first four months of this year and last year. So, according to the figures for January to April 2024, a total of 42.075 more new cars are now on the roads in Hungary.

Interestingly, meanwhile, 46,3 percent more light commercial vehicles were registered than in April last year (a total of 2417), compared to a 22,3 percent jump over the same period in 2023. In the last four months, no fewer than 10.664 new small cars have been registered.

Used car market grows only slightly

According to DataHouse, in April, 8917 imported used cars were registered in Hungary, an increase of more than 9 percent compared to 8173 a year ago. In the first four months of the year, the volume of used car imports was 36.133, up 3,6 percent year-on-year.

According to Bertalan Halász, CEO of JóAutók.hu, the underlying problem remains that used cars have become significantly more expensive in Western markets in recent years. He believes that a substantial, trend-like shift will not take place before the second half of the year, and that the volume of imported cars will not increase by more than 5-6 percent on an annual basis. The development of used car imports is also negatively affected by the euro exchange rate. The price advantage of imports has fallen sharply, shifting part of the demand for used cars to the domestic used car market, which is currently breaking its previous records month after month with sales of over 76.000 cars per month.