The VW Golf was the best-selling new car in Europe in 2014 but the favorite model for second-hand buyers was again the BMW 3 Series. New passenger vehicle registration data for the European Union had the VW Golf as Europe’s favorite car in 2014 for the seventh consecutive year but Autoscout24 internet search data showed that for the same period, the BMW 3 Series was the first choice for buyers searching used cars. The BMW brand was also more frequently searched than VW.
Europe’s Favorite Used Car Models
According to Autoscout24, the largest online car market in Europe, the BMW 3 Series was the top choice for buyers searching for a new used car. In 2014, for the seventh year in a row, BMW 3 Series cars with 5.2% of all searches, were more popular than any other car model.
In 2014, the VW Golf was Europe’s best-selling new car for the seventh consecutive year but as second-hand model it came only second in popularity with 4.7% of searches. The Golf was followed by the BMW 5 Series (3.1%), the Audi A4 (2.9%) and the Mercedes-Benz C Class (2.5%).
Europe’s Favorite Used Car Brands
According to Autoscout24, German marques were also the top car brands in searches for second-hand cars in Europe in 2014.
New passenger vehicle registration data showed Europe’s best-selling car brands in 2014 as Volkswagen (12.5% market share), Ford (7.3%), Opel (7.1%), Renault (6.7%) and Peugeot (6%).
However, in searches for used cars, buyers of second hand cars were more interested in BMW (14.7%), VW (12.1%), Mercedes-Benz (11.7%), Audi (11.6%) and Opel (4.4%). Interestingly, only Volkswagen was close to the same market share for both new car registrations and searches for used cars.
BMW was the top search choice on Autoscout24 websites in Belgium, Germany, France, Italy and Austria and second in The Netherlands and Spain. BMW was only the top car brand offered in Belgium and Spain leaving a healthy margin for sellers between the number of searches and the number of cars available to buyers.
In Germany, 16.4% of searches were for BMW cars while only 8.4% of the cars offered for sale were BMWs. Volkswagens comprised 19.2% of cars offered for sale at Autoscout24.de while only 14.3% of searches were for VWs.
Once the dreaming has stopped – in Spain searches for Porsches were the fifth most popular – most second-hand car buyers probably had to settle for a Volkswagen anyway.
Most-Popular Car Color Choice in Europe
Black remains by far the most popular paint color choice for both searches and used car offered for sale on Autoscout24 in Europe. The top car color choices for searches were black (28.3%), grey (15.9%), silver (13%), blue (12.6%) and white (11.6%).
Black was the top choice in searches for second-hand cars in Belgium, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Austria and Spain. Only in France, was black (22.3%) narrowly out searched by grey (22.7%). In all markets, the searches for black cars were around 3% higher than the number of black cars on offer.
