Owning an amount of two to three million rubles today, many buyers are wondering which crossover is better to choose: a new Chinese one or a more familiar Korean, European or Japanese one, but with mileage. As evidenced by the sales of the last summer month, the majority of customers continued to choose equipment from the West and the Land of the Rising Sun. So, if in the market of new foreign cars among the 20 most popular crossovers there were 19 Chinese ones, which sold a total circulation of almost 40 thousand units, then in the “running” segment among the “top twenty” there was no place for one just “Chinese”. The best among them in sales, Chery Tiggo (T11), was content with a modest 32nd position (918 cars). But the total number of cars of the “old guard” from the West, Japan and Korea in the top 20 approached 70 thousand “pieces” (8.2% monthly).
Japanese cars continue to be the most purchased (11 models out of 20), mainly from the Toyota brand. The leader, the RAV4 compact crossover, found 5,448 buyers in August, 4% more than in July. And in just 8 months of this year, almost 37 thousand of these cars changed owners. The older brother of the RAV4, the universal SUV Toyota Land Cruiser Prado, was chosen by 5.2 thousand buyers (+7% compared to July). Kia Sportage (4.9 thousand units, +9%) closed in the top three. Among the top ten of the classification, three more “Japanese” (Nissan X-Trail, Nissan Qashqai and Mitsubishi Outlander), two “German” (Volkswagen Tiguan and BMW . Crete received legal registration.
Nine other used crossover models could boast passing two to three thousand owners each in August. These are two Hyundais: Santa Fe and Tucson, Kia Sorento, Lexus RX, Subaru Forester, Honda CR-V, Volkswagen Touareg, Mazda CX-5 and the “indestructible” Land Cruiser 200. And finally, the qualification is completed. for a car that lasted almost twenty years on the assembly line: the Mitsubishi Pajero: 1.8 thousand Russians chose it in August, 4% more than in July.
“Unlike the new car segment, which in the last two years has become increasingly filled with “Chinese” (more than forty different brands from China are already available), used car retail continues to live according to the old rules. Here, the priority remains those models that have existed for decades “that have proven their durability, maintainability and adaptability to use in poor road conditions and increased corrosive effects. The vast majority of Chinese brands have not yet done this over time,” noted Marina Dembitskaya, head of Otkritie Auto.
Of the 647,000 used cars sold in August, only 14,400 or 2.2% were Chinese cars. Furthermore, relative to August 2022 (14.48 thousand units), its sales and share (2.5%) remained practically unchanged. Since the secondary market is 6-7 times larger than the retail trade of new cars, it will take more than a year for global changes and a noticeable mass “removal” of cars from the West, Japan and Korea. So far, in 2023, we can count on around 1.5 million transactions with the Japanese in the used vehicle market alone.
