Vehicle data expert CARTELL.IE has reported that the proportion of vehicles offered for sale, across all years, with finance outstanding is rising quickly. It now stands at 12.5%, up from 11.5% in January and 9.5% in June 2016.

Cartell.ie also reports that more vehicles for certain key registration years are being offered for sale with finance outstanding than in 2016. From a sample of over 5,906 vehicles offered for sale and checked via the Cartell.ie website so far in 2017, the figures show that more than one third of vehicles registered in the last three years are offered for sale with finance outstanding.

In the case of one-year-old vehicles (2016) the levels of vehicles offered for sale with finance outstanding has risen from 31.58% for the full year 2016 to 36.83% so far in 2017,  representing an increase of 16.62%. This means there is now almost a two-in-five chance of a one-year-old vehicle being offered for sale with finance outstanding.

John Byrne, Cartell.ie, says, “33% of all three-year-old vehicles (2014) checked so far this year on Cartell.ie have finance outstanding. This is up from 26.8% of three-year-old vehicles (2013) checked last year on the site. The rise is probably due to expiring PCPs where owners are testing the market to see if they can return a higher price than the Guaranteed Minimum Future Value (GMFV) guaranteed by the dealer.” He adds, “What is really concerning is that 34% of all vehicles registered in the last three years are offered for sale with finance outstanding. We would advise a buyer to check a vehicle for outstanding finance as the finance house owns the vehicle until the last payment has been made. The bottom line is that you can lose the vehicle.”