Car prices drop in 24 EU countries, stable in Malta

Car prices increased in Portugal and were stable in Malta and Italy last year, while they went down in 24 other EU countries, figures issued today show. 

The European Commission’s latest car price report, issued today, shows that car prices fell by 2.5% in real terms in 2010 in the European Union as a whole. List prices for new cars also converged slightly.  

Overall, price differences for passenger cars between Member States decreased, as expressed in manufacturers' price lists. But the differences remained big in some cases pointing to large savings for consumers shopping across borders. 

The EU price index for cars (reflecting nominal prices paid by consumers, including rebates, VAT and registration taxes) increased by only 0.3%, against a 2.8% rise in overall consumer prices, translating into a fall in real car prices by 2.5%.

24 EU countries recorded a fall in real car prices. Prices increased marginally - by 0.2% -  in both Italy and Malta, while they increased in Portugal (+2.6%). In the latter case, however, buyers benefited from a greater-then-average fall in real car prices in 2009 (-6.7%).

The fall in real prices was particularly marked in Slovakia (-17.4%), Bulgaria (-13.5%), Slovenia (-11.6%) and the Czech Republic (-9.0%). In Poland they decreased by 5.6%.

Among the large markets, real prices decreased most notably in the UK (‑3.7%), while Germany, Spain and France experienced more moderate price reductions (-1.9%, -1.6% and -0.9% respectively).

"The fall in real car prices across the EU continues a trend observed for more than a decade, which indicates that competition between car manufacturers on the market for new cars is working," the EU said.

Real prices for repair and maintenance, which had increased over the last decade by more than the general inflation levels, did not rise in 2010. 

See a comparison of prices by most car makes by clicking the pdf below.