The proportion of buyers who can purchase a new passenger car without attracting credit funds and without selling an existing vehicle does not exceed 10%. This was reported to RIA Novosti by the Association of Russian Automobile Dealers. From 60% to 70% of cars are bought on credit. At the same time, even those who pay the full amount immediately without loans, as a rule, first sell the old car (including handing it over for trade-in), and then pay the missing amount. The range of 60–70% is explained by the unevenness of sales on credit from month to month.
The main factor forcing buyers to turn to loans or sell an old car is the high price of new cars. According to experts, even to buy a domestic model today, you need to have an amount of approximately one and a half million rubles. Foreign cars, especially after the tightening of parallel imports and the increase in the recycling fee, are much more expensive. At the same time, the real disposable income of the population does not allow most families to accumulate such an amount at a time without withdrawing funds from other budget items or without selling an existing asset (an old car).
The figures given record the structure of demand in the car market. The share of trade-in (selling an old car to a dealership with a subsequent surcharge) is not highlighted separately, but according to dealers, it covers the main part of “non-credit” transactions. Pure buyers who come with money “from scratch” are less than 10%. This means that the new car market in Russia is critically dependent on two factors: the availability of credit (rates, government support programs) and the state of the secondary market, since the price of a new car for most consists of the cost of the old one plus a surcharge.
For automakers and dealers, a high share of credit sales (60–70%) means the market is sensitive to changes in the key rate and auto lending conditions. If loans become more expensive or requirements for borrowers are tightened, sales of new cars may fall by tens of percent.