Vehicle data expert CARTELL.IE has reported that it has seen a drop in overall levels of car finance.

Generally speaking, this is likely attributable to the pandemic and a Post-Brexit environment. From a sample of over 5,906 vehicles offered for sale and checked via the Cartell.ie website in the first 6 months of 2021, the figures show that while 34 percent of three-year-old vehicles are offered for sale with finance outstanding this value has actually dropped year-over-year from 42 per cent for the first 6 months last year.

Likewise in the case of one-year-old vehicles (2020) the levels of vehicles offered for sale with finance outstanding is 28%. This means there is still a one-in-four chance of a one-year-old vehicle being offered for sale with finance outstanding but the overall level has dropped from 37% last year.

Jeff Aherne, Innovation Lead at Cartell.ie, says, “The overall percentages of vehicles offered for sale with finance outstanding in key registration years has fallen from 2020 levels but buyers should not be complacent. Even taking six-year-old vehicles as an example, nearly one-in-five of those still return outstanding finance. Buyers are strongly advised to be cautious in the market as you cannot take good title in the asset until the final payment has been paid to the financial institution. This means you may be buying a huge problem.”