Thanks to the endless waiting times for the delivery of new cars, the used car market in Italy has "literally gone crazy, causing price lists charged to the public to soar. First the microchip crisis, then that of semiconductors, together with the logistical problems associated with shortage of car transporters and road hauliers and the increase in price lists (the current average price of a car is equal to 26 thousand euros), have dramatically lengthened the delivery times for new cars, to the point that today the wait easily exceeds 12 months".
This was stated by Federcarrozzieri, the association of Italian body shops.
"Those who have an urgent need to buy a car, or to change the one they already own, must therefore turn to the second-hand market where prices, precisely because of the greater demand (372,696 transfers of ownership in January alone, +7.8% on an annual basis) have skyrocketed: in 2022 the prices of second-hand cars underwent an average increase of 24%, a phenomenon that continues also in 2023, to the point that in the first 3 months of the year the increase in price lists around +30%.
In this situation there are further enormous risks for motorists and consumers entering this market: the first is evidently linked to higher purchase prices than in the past, the second, of a clearly opposite sign - denounces Federcarrozzieri - is determined, in the event of an accident, from insufficient liquidation of damages by the insurance companies.
In the event of a road accident, theft, acts of vandalism and in general events covered by the insurance policy, the companies systematically use the parameters indicated in the Eurotax and Quattroruote Professional databases to quantify the compensation to be paid to the policyholders, which assign a value to the car according to the model, the year of registration, the km travelled, etc.
However, these parameters provide much lower values than the real commercial value of the car market detected, for example, by the Autoscout or Autouncle systems, the largest online platforms in Europe for the automotive market".
Meanwhile, according to Assoutenti, buying a new car in Italy is increasingly difficult, and not only because of the very long waiting times: even the car price lists have soared, to the point that today the average price of a car exceeds in our country the 26 thousand euros.
In 2013 an average of 18 thousand euros was spent to buy a new car in Italy, a figure which has now risen to 26 thousand euros with a disproportionate increase of +44.4% in just 10 years, analyzes Assoutenti.
According to the latest Istat data, in March the prices of new cars rose by +6.1% compared to the same period last year.
At the basis of these increases, both the advent of electric cars on the market, whose high costs have raised the average, and the crisis of raw materials, from microchips to components, increasingly rare and expensive materials which have caused a tsunami in the sector altering the price lists to the public.
Finally Simone Baldelli, former president of the parliamentary commission of inquiry for consumer protection, raises an alarm on speed cameras: "For 13 years there have been no certain and clear rules on their use. This has allowed and allows various local administrations to use this tool more to raise cash than to make road safety After years of battles and disregarded announcements by previous governments, it is hoped that the current government will have the strength and determination to finally launch the ministerial decree necessary to regulate this matter without getting blocked by local authorities".
"Even with regard to collections - he continues - the time has come to start sanctioning, as required by the highway code, local authorities who, by 31 May each year (it will be interesting to see the new data in a few weeks), do not declare the proceeds of these fines and how they use that money.The alternative to this deadlock could otherwise be radical: change the rules and allocate all the resources
coming from the fines made with the speed cameras of the local administrations to a national fund that finances training, information and prevention initiatives on road safety".