In the intricate landscape of the used car market, truth and deception often tread a fine line. Recent revelations by Cebia, a company specializing in vehicle verification, have exposed a common and misleading claim made by sellers: the assertion that a used vehicle is being sold by its original owner. Cebia’s study, however, has uncovered that a mere 16% of used cars were genuinely sold by their first owners, even though half of the vehicles on the market were advertised with such a claim. This misleading practice is resulting in inflated prices, with sellers marking up prices by up to five percent, equivalent to an additional nine thousand crowns for a vehicle worth 300,000 crowns.

The used car market in the current year has witnessed an expanded variety compared to the previous year. Cebia reports a 4.5% increase in the number of cars available in dealerships. Vehicles of Czech origin have seen a rise, constituting half of the offerings, while imports are on the decline. Aures Holdings, the market leader operating AAA Auto used car dealerships, anticipates the sale of 100,000 used cars this year.

Unveiling the actual number of owners of a used car is not a challenging feat for sellers. Cebia’s director, Martin Pajer, warns potential buyers to scrutinize the vehicle registration document, emphasizing that only the last owner is typically recorded. For imported cars, the document usually mentions only the current owner in the Czech Republic. Pajer notes that sellers employ this strategy to dissuade buyers from conducting thorough verifications, creating a false sense of security by claiming a single owner while obscuring potential risks, such as previous severe accidents.

Sauto.cz, the primary Czech online car marketplace, currently features over 88,000 used and new cars, with a staggering 43,000 claiming to be from the first owner. Additionally, over 30,000 cars are advertised as being up to three years old, 300 are declared to have been in an accident and repaired, while 460 vehicles are offered with damage or after a crash, underscoring the prevalence of misleading information in the market.

Article by Prague Forum