A sharp surge in sales of used cars in February 2026 is associated with a revision of the rules for calculating scrappage fees, a decrease in the availability of loans, as well as sales of new cars in 2025, which limited demand in the secondary market. The head of the department for working with key clients of the Avto.ru classification, Sergei Ignatov, told Motor magazine about this.
“The new round of revision of the recycling fee rate limited the availability of foreign cars and further pushed up prices, so part of the demand naturally flowed to the secondary market. Another reason is the inaccessibility of credit instruments to a significant proportion of consumers. Banks have significantly reduced the number of approvals, and the loan rates themselves make them financially unattractive,” Ignatov listed the reasons for the increase in sales of used cars on the Russian market in February.
According to him, against this background, the secondary market has become noticeably more interesting for the buyer, and the choice has expanded with cars from Chinese brands aged 3-5 years. In addition, in 2025, sales growth in the secondary market was hampered by massive sales of new car inventories, but now this effect has been neutralized and buyers have returned to the secondary market.
“If we talk about the structure of demand, Lada’s leadership can be explained by price, availability and developed service network. The popularity of Kia, Hyundai and Toyota is formed by the strong reputation of these brands, the relative availability of service and a significant volume of supply,” concluded Ignatov.
Earlier, Russians were told how to identify a car from a taxi on the secondary market.
