Compared to 2020, such cars have already risen in price by more than 40 percent on average, and some models even by 60 percent. The biggest increase was recorded by VW Golf, whose average price is now 630 thousand crowns, while the year before it was 399 thousand crowns.
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According to AAA Auto and Mototechna, the maximum price of the three-year-old Octavia increased the most – on average from almost 490,000 in 2020 to the current
680 thousand crowns.
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It should be noted, however, that the vast majority of models on the AAA Auto website cost less and the arithmetic average is increased by a smaller group of expensive, mostly sports RS variants.
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For comparison, the brand new cheapest Škoda Octavia now costs 520 thousand crowns, but in other equipment from 585 thousand, 640 and 780 thousand. The new RS costs from CZK 925,000.
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Price epidemic
However, the analysis prepared by AAA Auto and Mototechna concerns the entire Czech market.
The most frequently offered cars under the age of three in the Czech Republic in January were Škoda cars: Fabia, Octavia, Scala, Kodiaq, Karoq, Superb, Kamiq. Hyudai i30, Toyota Corolla and Dacia Duster finished eighth to tenth. According to the analysis, new cars have an average of 17,000 kilometers.
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Price fever is spreading like an epidemic in the automotive sector: automakers do not have enough chips, their producers are tripling their prices, and new cars are expected to wait months if the customer does not take what is, so the prices of new cars fly up.
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This has also pushed up the prices of new used cars, which in some cases, for example for Škoda cars, cost even more than the list price for a comparable new model.
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If the average includes all used second-hand cars, including the oldest ones, in the Czech Republic and Germany, according to ČSOB analyst Petr Dufek, they rose by more than 12 percent year-on-year.
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Indispensable chips: Asia is pushing the price
Supplies are also becoming more expensive. For example, the Ford Transit in the bus version, plus or minus ten years old, was available a year and a half ago for about 200,000 crowns. Today, comparable offers are CZK 50,000 higher. Paradoxically, the price of an older car does not suddenly fall with each passing year, but vice versa.
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At the same time, the rise in car prices will not stop, because the main reason for the price fever – the lack of chips from Asia – has not disappeared. “People and companies would buy cars. But there are no chips, “said Next Finance analyst Markéta Šichtařová.
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The total production of passenger cars in the Czech Republic in January therefore fell by more than 14 percent year on year. ČSOB analyst Petra Dufek pointed out that only South Korean Hyundai, which increased production by 29 percent year-on-year last year and by another 17 percent year-on-year in January, and Toyota, which increased sales by ten percent a year, were out of the question. Already in January, Toyota’s production fell by more than 39 percent.
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“Chips? In our opinion, this is blackmailing producers in Asia. They have chips, but they will tell you that they will only deliver them if you pay twice or three times more. Suddenly, the chip is not for the euro, but for two, for two and a half, or even more if you want security of delivery. It’s such a small thing, but without it, turn signals, window controls, airbags do not work, “said Práva, head of the Central Bohemian production plant of a large family company with a turnover of several billion, supplying carmakers with controls. Already last year, this Czech company started a factory in Bulgaria.
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“The transfer of part of the production of not only chips, but also other primary parts from Asia to Europe is a big trend so that carmakers and their suppliers are no longer in such a clinic,” added the head of the plant, who is preparing a hall for the production of own chips in the Czech Republic.
The owner of a smaller engineering factory for the production of automatic filling lines near Karlovy Vary is similarly considering. “We’ll start making chips, that’s not the way it goes,” he told Práva.
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| Watch out for cars from floods |
| The limited offer of cars increases the risk that the motorist will run “to the left”. |
| These are not just welded cars after accidents, the wrecks of which were sold by insurance companies cheaply at auctions, or twisted tachometers. |
| Cebia also warned against used cars from Germany from devastating floods last summer. |
| The problem is that in a car that has been flooded, faults in the electronics and engine can start to show up even after a few months of drying out. |
| In addition to the lustration in the screening systems, it can be ascertained, for example, that the applicant will find mud deposits under the upholstery or carpet, in less accessible parts of the body or on cable harnesses. |
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