Used car buyer confidence at lowest level for six months

The percentage of motorists who are positive about the idea of buying a used car has fallen from 59% in August to 48% now, shows February’s Startline Used Car Tracker.

Those who feel neutral about changing their car have increased from 34% to 43% over the last six months but those who are negative has only risen slightly – from 7% to 10%.

Paul Burgess, CEO at Startline Motor Finance, said, “There’s a general feeling of negativity around the economy at the moment and this appears to be feeding through into used car buyer sentiment, with quite a substantial fall in confidence over the last six months.

“However, there is some nuance to this picture. Largely, people appear to be moving from feeling positive to neutral about the prospect of buying a car, rather than becoming negative. This is perhaps reflective of the wider economic mood – things aren’t bad by most measures, they just don’t necessarily feel good.”

Among those who feel negative, the top reason for not changing their car is that their existing vehicle is fine (41%), their finances are worse (38%), they just don’t feel like a change (24%) and that used cars are currently too expensive (17%).

Those who are positive say that their current car needs replacing (49%), they just feel like a change (31%), their personal finances have improved (25%), they want a bigger car (23%) and electric car prices have fallen (15%).

Paul said: “Last month, we released some data about how used car buyers felt about 2025 in general and the overall message was that they were taking a very practical view. Largely, they would change their car when it needed changing and then look for the best deal.

“These figures for February seem to underline that impression. More people are seeing a deterioration in their personal finances than are seeing an improvement, and relatively few are in a position to just change their car because they feel like it.”

The Startline Used Car Tracker is compiled monthly for Startline Motor Finance by APD Global Research, well-known in the motor industry for their business intelligence reporting and customer experience programs. This time, 302 consumers and 58 dealers were questioned.