Used 2017 diesels: Spain's second-hand car market has exploded

Used vans are selling for more than they cost new

Walking into a used car dealership looking for a 2017 diesel and leaving with the feeling of having crossed into another economy. That's what people who have just been through the process describe: vans and family cars appraised above their original launch price, a catalogue dominated by diesel and not a single electric car on the showroom floor. The used car market is no longer the refuge of those who can't afford a new car. It's now the place where a six-year-old Berlingo with 130,000 kilometres is listed at €12,000 and considered a good price.

Why have second-hand car prices soared?

The official excuses no longer hold up, according to the analyses circulating. The shortage of electronic components, rising transport costs and the war in Ukraine explained the initial spike, but not what came after. New cars have gone up by around 30%, dragging up everything else on the road with them. Some put it bluntly: 120-horsepower cars for €35,000.

The result is a paradox anyone can spot in a listing. In 2001, a 110-hp Golf TDI cost 3 million pesetas, €18,000. Twenty-two years later, an equivalent doesn't even reach double that, despite far higher cumulative inflation. A 10- or 12-year-old car with 200,000 kilometres used to go straight to the scrapyard; today sellers ask €3,000 and won't budge.

Add to that an unchallenged supply-side pressure: "we buy your car" services, traditional dealerships with serious capital behind them, mass advertising and a drive to corner the market. The suspicion that they are pushing up prices for a good that is hardly a luxury completes the picture.

Diesel dominates the market and electrics are nowhere to be seen

The picture at the dealership is telling: 90% of the stock on display is diesel, not a single electric car in sight and three-cylinder engines are conspicuously absent from the catalogue. Diesel is pitched as the safe option while the regulatory outlook remains unclear. And yet that same 2017 diesel, nearly a decade old, could lose its environmental sticker (Spain's low-emission-zone badge) within a few years.

Some argue the best combustion engines were built in the mid-2000s, before emissions standards and cheaper materials — including plastic oil pan covers — eroded reliability. Others point to the later problems of certain engines, from timing belts to AdBlue systems, as proof that quality has plummeted.

Are three-cylinder engines bad?

It's the hottest debate in the industry and the one that clichés survive least well. One salesperson is clear: almost everything they sell is petrol three-cylinders and they fly off the lot — that's why they're out of stock, not because nobody wants them. The list of counterexamples is overwhelming: from the 272-hp Toyota Yaris GR to the 231-hp BMW i8, not to mention the 305-hp Corolla GR, the 163-hp Volvo XC40 or 115-hp models like the T-Roc and the Octavia.

Against that, the classic stance doesn't budge: they vibrate, they're weak at low revs and they're inefficient. The argument rests on the fact that three-cylinder engines with real power are a handful of exceptions, not the market norm.

It all depends on where you set the bar. For part of the public, a "real" car starts at six cylinders and everything else is junk.

Waiting a year for a new car and financing it at 6%

Buying a new car is no longer an afternoon at the dealership. There are accounts of waits of up to a year, with cars arriving with trimmed-down equipment due to parts shortages and manufacturers dodging responsibility for defects. Stock is no longer kept on the lot by choice: it costs a fortune, and dealers keep it, in many cases, to hit targets and collect incentives.

Financing adds its own price hike. Five years ago a loan was signed at 3% interest; now the benchmark has moved to 6%. For buyers on a fixed budget, every point matters more than any optional extra.

A 130-hp Córdoba, twenty years old with 180,000 kilometres and a single owner, has just sold for €3,500. Excellent bodywork, but twenty years old. The question is no longer whether used cars have become expensive. It's how much higher prices have to climb before we stop calling scrap a bargain.