Used car buyer confidence is at its lowest level for six months, according to new research from Startline Motor Finance.
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.
According to the research, which polled 302 consumers and 58 dealers, 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, Startline Motor Finance chief executive, 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.”
The EY ITEM Club, which is the consultancy’s economic forecasting group, has downgraded its GDP growth expectations for 2025 to 1%, down from the 1.5% predicted in October’s Autumn Forecast, reflecting the stagnation in growth the economy experienced in the second half of 2024.
This represents only a marginal improvement on the 0.8% GDP growth the UK economy likely achieved in 2024.
UK GDP growth is then expected to accelerate to 1.6% in 2026, in line with predictions made by the EY ITEM Club in October.
Why customers are feeling more negative
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%).
Burgess 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.”