Cartell reveal average new car price

VEHICLE history and data expert Cartell.ie says that the buyer of a new private vehicle in Ireland is now purchasing a vehicle worth more than €30,000 on average for the first time since it started recording these statistics.

Cartell calculated the total value of new vehicles purchased in Ireland between the years 2006 and 2018 based on the recommended Open Market Selling Price (OMSP) for each vehicle and summing them up. The company divided the total value for each year by the number of new vehicles sold that year to establish the average value per buyer. Unsurprisingly, Cartell.ie found the average value of a new vehicle purchased fluctuated with the fortunes of the economy, so, in 2007 at the height of the boom the average value of a vehicle purchased was €28,106 which dropped to €24,758 in 2011 before increasing steadily every year since then as the economy improved. In 2016 the average value of a new vehicle was already back to boom time levels recording €28,385 while in 2017 the value had ticked up 4% to €29,481.

For the first 6 months of 2018 the average value has now hit €30,000 returning a figure of €30,130: the first 6 months of 2017 recorded €29,391 before ending the year on €29,481. This shows the average Irish buyer is now buying a vehicle worth €30,000 for the first time since Cartell started recording these statistics.

Cartell.ie considered several possible reasons for the increase in the average value of a private vehicle purchased in Ireland over the last several years:

Consumers may be opting for more expensive vehicles, or more expensive vehicle types like SUVs and Crossover vehicles, or MPV

Buyer has more cash to spend or more available lines of credit. Financial products such as Personal Contract Plans (PCPs) came to prominence in Ireland during the recession as manufacturers sought a means to provide direct lines of credit to potential buyers

Buyers may want larger cars. The country had a recorded population of 4.23 million in Census 2006 which increased to 4.76 million in Census 2016. This increase may have weighed on buyer decisions, for instance, buyers with younger children may need additional space

Vehicles are more expensive to manufacture, to comply with NCAP safety ratings, for example, this increases the cost of manufacture: the consumer now often expects certain higher specification items as standard too – larger wheels, alloys, on-board technology, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) features – which all increase the manufacture cost Increased consumer demand for hybrid vehicles (where technology is more expensive to implement) could be making an impact, along with changes in buyer habits to more environmentally friendly vehicles, and guided generally by the move to city-clean air policies.