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Summer purchasing of cars for the holidays is dominated by large cars, sales of off-road vehicles, SUV and MPV vehicles are growing

This year’s summer season is traditionally the domain of large cars such as MPV, SUV and off-road vehicles. This year in summer nearly 10% more of these vehicles was sold in comparison to the same period last year. AAA AUTO already announced rising interest in used cars, total sales to date have increased year-on-year by 7.3 %.

The rising popularity of large cars during the holiday period was confirmed by sales during the summer season. AAA AUTO has sold nearly 3,400 such cars from the beginning of May to date. “Establishment of specialised centres for SUV and off-road vehicles has had a major influence on the rise in sales of these vehicles. Customers can find these centres in Prague and Brno, where they can choose a vehicle from the vehicles on sale throughout the entire Czech Republic and if the vehicle is at a more distant branch, we will be happy to bring it to the customer’s nearest branch,“ says Managing Director of AAA AUTO Karolína Topolová. The most popular family car models are now the Volkswagen Touran, the Škoda Roomster and the Kia Sportage. 

Selection of a car before the summer holidays is not just about a lot of space and safety, but also about comfort and the vehicle’s appearance. The considerably reduced fuel consumption of these vehicles has significantly expanded the options of Czech drivers who are no longer forced to take the differences in fuel consumption between individual models so seriously. “Fuel prices have remained on relatively pleasant values in the long-term and the differences between diesel and petrol continue to be minimal. In spite of this, 60% of customers choose diesel versions in the case of SUV and MPV vehicles for the summer, which provides them with significant savings on longer distances, which they travel more frequently in summer,“Topolová confirms. The increased popularity of used cars is caused by the increasingly larger difference compared to new vehicles, as Topolová confirms. “The opening scissors trend between the prices of new and used cars continues and is a great influence on the rise in the number of our customers, where SUV vehicles in particular can be purchased as year or two-year old cars for a much lower price, than new,” Karolína Topolová explains. 

According to AAA AUTO statistics, the popularity of automatic transmissions has risen by 4.5% to 23.9% compared to last year’s summer season in the case of MPV and SUV vehicles. The most popular marque is Volkswagen, followed by Ford and Hyundai and 33% of customers prefer four-wheel drive. The most popular engine version is 2.0 TDI. Customers mostly choose grey and black vehicles, but there has been a great change in the popularity of white, which has moved from fifth to third place since last year’s summer season and confirms the rising trend in new vehicles.