Under €6,000, a bigger car means a more-driven one

In brief

• The size of the body is paid for in kilometres: the median reading for a hatchback is 190,000 km and for an estate 305,000 km, even though the estate is the cheaper of the two (4,290 € and 4,490 €).
• Private sales account for 56.9% of the class, while across the whole market dealers account for 63.4%. Dealers rarely take on the most-driven models in the class.
• Eight electric cars were sold in the class in August, or 0.1% of its sales. Across the whole market their share is 10.0%.
• The typical car in the class is a 2008 model with 268,000 km on it, against 2014 and 187,000 km for the market as a whole.

Same money, a different size of car

In August, 8,283 cars changed hands in the 3,000–5,999 € class. That is 15.1% of all sales in the month, so a little over a seventh of Finland's used car trade is done with this kind of money. The class covered 670 different models. The price band is narrow all the same: the lower quartile sits at 3,690 € and the upper quartile starts at 5,000 €.

Price, then, does not tell these cars apart. What tells them apart is how far they have been driven.

The price column moves from 4,200 € to 4,690 €. The odometer column moves between 190,000 km and 309,000 km. The hatchback is the least-driven body in the class and the SUV the most-driven, and the gap between their prices is of the order of two hundred euros. Extra space does not cost euros in this class. It costs kilometres.

The same exchange rate turns up in every other split. Diesel and petrol cost the same here, 4,350 € and 4,380 €, but the median reading for a diesel is 346,968 km against 221,900 km for a petrol car. An automatic costs 4,500 € and a manual 4,290 €, and the automatic's reading is 311,000 km against the manual's 245,000 km. The same effect measured one class up is in an automatic is paid for in kilometres.

The most common body in the class is the estate, at 28.4% of sales. By the standards of the market it is a big car, yet here it is the cheapest body, with a median price of 4,290 €. Across the whole market an estate has a median price of 7,900 € and a median reading of 240,000 km, so the estates in this class are both cheaper and further driven than estates in general. What lands in the cheapest class is not a small estate but a heavily used one.

The MPV is 5.4% of the class at 4,300 € and 252,000 km, the van 3.1% at 4,350 € and 321,752 km. Every step from small to large runs the same way. The price stays put, the odometer climbs.

The pattern holds at the edges of the class too. Coupés are 2.4% of sales with a median model year of 2001, convertibles 1.6% at 4,800 €, and both are small cars from the dearer end of the class. Pickups, meanwhile, have been driven to 329,000 km. The order repeats even in the bodies of which the class holds only a few hundred.

The typical car in this class is from 2008

The median model year in the class is 2008 and the median odometer reading 268,000 km. The corresponding figures for the whole market are 2014 and 187,000 km. That is a gap of six model years and some eighty thousand kilometres, and it is in effect the whole distance that separates this price class from the rest of the used car trade.

Age is not spread evenly inside the class. The weight sits in the 2008–2012 model years, and the 2011 model year alone accounted for 785 sales. Cars from the 1990s fit the same price, though: the 1991 model year changed hands 53 times.

Being older does not cut the price at the same rate it adds kilometres. The median price for a 2011 car is 4,500 € and for a 2001 car 4,000 €, so ten model years take five hundred euros off. Over that same stretch the median odometer reading climbs from 257,198 km to 320,000 km. Age does not disappear. It moves from the price to the odometer.

The reading climbs steeply from the 2018 model year to 2012 and flattens after that. At the oldest end, differences of a few thousand kilometres no longer say anything about a car, because all the odometer holds is what the car has survived. The youngest cars in the class are an exception of their own: the 2017 and 2018 model years read 169,000 km and 160,000 km, and fewer than a hundred of them were sold in total.

The model year also tells you who you are buying from. Of the 2018 cars, 73.5% came from a dealer, of the 2005 cars 33.9% and of the 1996 cars 5.1%. The line runs roughly at the 2009 model year: newer than that and the cars are mostly a dealer's, older and they are mostly private sales.

Price also has a floor. The median price for a 2003 car is 3,780 € and for a 1991 car 3,800 €, so across twelve model years the price does not move at all. Some of the oldest model years are dearer than cars from the early 2000s: the 1994 model year has a median price of 4,500 € and the 1990 model year 4,200 €. Once a car is old enough, the price stops following its age.

The Golf and the Octavia carry the class

The best-selling model in the class is the Volkswagen Golf, with 297 sales and 3.6% of the class. Second comes the Skoda Octavia on 220 sales and third the Audi A4 on 208. The top of the list is shallow: no model reaches four per cent, and the class as a whole covered 670 different models.

The list looks familiar, but it is not the top of the whole market. It includes models that cost more than the Golf when new: the Mercedes-Benz C, the Mercedes-Benz E and the Audi A4. What they have in common is not the price but the reading.

1. 1 Volkswagen Golf 4,250 € Median price236,000 km Odometer reading
2. 2 Skoda Octavia 4,290 € Median price267,000 km Odometer reading
3. 3 Audi A4 4,000 € Median price328,709 km Odometer reading
4. 4 Mercedes-Benz C 4,400 € Median price365,000 km Odometer reading
5. 5 Toyota Corolla 3,990 € Median price233,000 km Odometer reading
6. 6 Mercedes-Benz E 4,200 € Median price435,087 km Odometer reading

The median prices of the six leading models fit into the 3,990–4,400 € range, but more than two hundred thousand kilometres separate their odometer readings. A buyer comparing these six cars on the same budget is not comparing prices. They are comparing how much of each car has already been used.

The cheapest of the leading models is the Toyota Corolla at 3,990 €. It is also the oldest on the list, with a median model year of 2005, yet its reading of 233,000 km is the lowest there. The Corolla is the only leading model that is cheap, old and comparatively little driven all at once.

Two of the most common models in the class are not passenger cars at all. The Volkswagen Transporter ranks 14th in the class and the Ford Transit 18th, and both have a median model year of 2005. A van reaches this price by the same route as a big German sedan: in working use the kilometres pile up fast. The class is not just a first-car class, then. It is also where work vehicles end up at the end of their service life.

Among the most common models in the class, the estates are the ones driven furthest. The Volvo V70 took 168 sales at a reading of 378,000 km and the Toyota Avensis 145 sales at 300,453 km. The V70's median price is 4,100 €. An estate body carries a car to the most-driven end of the class whether the badge is Japanese or Swedish.

The leading list ranks the class by how common a model is, not by how cheap it is. The Golf's 297 sales mean you come across the model more often than the others, not that it is cheaper: its median price of 4,250 € sits in the middle of the list. Commonness still matters to a buyer, because it tells you how often one example can be compared against another just like it.

The Mercedes-Benz E is the most-driven car in the class

The Mercedes-Benz E sold 192 times in the class, and its median odometer reading is 435,087 km. The median for the class is 268,000 km, so the E has been driven a good half again as far as the typical car here. Its median price of 4,200 € still sits below the class median of 4,390 €.

The model year explains why. The median model year for E-Class cars in this class is 2006, and according to Wikipedia the W211 generation was built between 2002 and 2009. The whole generation is therefore at least seventeen years old by now. A car built for long distances and driven accordingly drops into the cheapest price class reading first, not age first.

The same pattern runs through the other big German cars. Among the most common models in the class, the most-driven after the E is the BMW 530 at 428,000 km, followed by the Volkswagen Transporter at 389,909 km and the Volvo V70 at 378,000 km. None of them has a median price above 4,400 €.

The small car is at the left-hand end and the big one at the right, and the price does not run the same way. The Ford Fiesta is the least-driven model on the chart and at the same time its dearest at 4,899 €, while the most-driven, the Mercedes-Benz E, stops at 4,200 €. In this class you pay more for a small car than for a big one.

The same badge looks different one size down. The Mercedes-Benz C has a median model year of 2008 and a reading of 365,000 km, which makes it two model years younger and seventy thousand kilometres less driven than the E. The price is still the same class. Inside one model family the exchange rate is the same as it is between bodies.

The dealer share says the same thing from another direction. Of the Mercedes-Benz E sales, 23.4% were made through a dealer, of the BMW 320 sales likewise 23.4% and of the BMW 520 sales 24.7%. Across the class the dealer share is 43.1%. At this price the big German cars do not travel through a dealer. They go straight from one owner to the next.

The Audi A4 is the borderline case of the same effect. It is the third most common model in the class on 208 sales, its median model year is 2008 and its reading 328,709 km, and the dealer share stops at 26.0%. In size and in mileage the A4 belongs with the big German cars, but its median price of 4,000 € is among the lowest of the class's common models.

The big cars in this class are not cheap cars. They are cars that have been driven a long way.

The young end of the class is a narrow strip

Two different used car markets run inside this class, and a little over a thousand euros separates them. The lower quartile goes at 3,690 €, the upper quartile starts at 5,000 €. At the bottom the car is old: the median price for a 2003 car is 3,780 € and its reading 297,000 km. At the top it is younger and less driven, and the 2016 model year reads 5,200 € and 205,000 km.

This is where the kilometre rule sags. If you want a little-driven car out of this class, you can have one: the median reading for the 2018 model year is 160,000 km, the lowest in the class. There just are not many of them. The 2018 model year sold 34 times and the 2017 model year 59, against 785 sales for the 2011 model year.

And when you find such a car, it is small. The least-driven common model in the class is the Ford Fiesta, with a median odometer reading of 151,687 km and a median model year of 2013. It is also the dearest of the class's common models at 4,899 €. Less mileage is not something you get for less money, then. You get it in a smaller car, and that is the same exchange rate as in the body split, read the other way round.

The edge of the young end is sharp. The median reading for the 2014 model year is 250,000 km, but for 2015 only 200,000 km, even though the price gap is a hundred euros: 4,900 € and 4,999 €. One model year across, and fifty thousand kilometres drop away. The dealer share rises from 55.9% to 68.3% over the same step.

Something else changes at the bottom end. The median price for the 1998 model year is 3,850 € and its reading 306,000 km, but the dealer share is down to 12.7%. The cheapest end of the class is also its most private end. The closer you get to the lower quartile, the more certain it is that the car is bought off a driveway.

The narrowness of the price band also shows in how little an extra thousand euros moves you inside the class. A 2003 car costs 3,780 € and a 2016 car 5,200 €, so thirteen model years cost just under one and a half thousand euros. After that the class runs out: the next step up is no longer a choice inside this price class.

Dealers do not buy the most-driven cars in the class

Across Finland, 63.4% of used car sales are made by a dealer. In this price class the ratio turns over: 43.1% came from a dealer and 56.9% from a private seller. The cheapest class is the one where a car most often changes hands on a driveway rather than on a forecourt.

The difference also shows in what you get from each. A car bought from a dealer has a median model year of 2010 and a reading of 241,500 km, one bought privately 2007 and 293,000 km. The dealer median price is 4,890 € and the private one 4,000 €.

Model by model the figures are sharper still. Of the Kia Ceeds 79.3% and of the Opel Astras 75.0% were bought from a dealer in this class. For the BMW 530 the dealer share is 9.2% and for the Volkswagen Transporter 16.8%. The further a model has been driven, the more surely it is sold off a driveway.

The type of seller has a consequence that does not show in the price. According to the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority (KKV), the liability for defects set out in consumer protection law does not cover a car bought from a private individual, and consumer advisory services do not handle sales between private people. With 56.9% of the class sold privately, most buyers at this price are on their own if something turns out to be wrong.

A dealer's selection is not the same as the class's selection. The best-selling SUV among the class's common models is the Nissan Qashqai, and 72.5% of those were bought from a dealer: median price 4,750 € and reading 262,000 km. What reaches a forecourt is the younger, less-driven end of the class.

The price gap between dealer and private sale is therefore not a premium for the seller but for the car. A car bought from a dealer is three model years younger and a good fifty thousand kilometres less driven than one bought privately. Dealers sell the younger end of the class, and the price gap is what that end costs.

The split follows age closely. Of the 2012 cars, 58.6% were bought from a dealer, of the 2004 cars 36.2% and of the 1990 cars 1.3%. The oldest end of the class is almost entirely private sales, and it is also the end where the odometer readings are highest.

The most-driven models in the class are exactly the ones dealers pass over.

An old car is inspected every year

The typical car in the class is a 2008 model, and one fixed running cost follows from that. According to the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom), a passenger car must undergo a roadworthiness inspection (katsastus) every year once more than ten years have passed since it was first registered. Almost every car in the class is past that line, so the inspection comes round every year rather than every other year.

A second cost applies to 40.2% of the class. A diesel is charged the fuel-based component of the annual vehicle tax, which Traficom puts at 5.5 cents a day for each 100 kg of total mass or part thereof. A petrol car is not charged it at all. The diesels in the class are at the same time the cars with the highest readings.

Neither cost shows in the purchase price. They show up a year later, and that is exactly why the real price of a car in this class is not what is handed over on the driveway. For older cars the basic component of the tax is set by total mass, and Traficom's table puts it at a minimum of 106.21 euros and a maximum of 654.44 euros a year.

The class sold 3,328 diesels and 4,868 petrol cars. With a diesel's median price at 4,350 € and a petrol car's at 4,380 €, choosing the fuel costs nothing at the moment of purchase. The difference arrives in use: the fuel-based tax runs every day whether the car is driven or not, and its size depends on the car's mass rather than on the kilometres covered.

A tax tied to mass lands on the same cars as the kilometres do. A big old car is charged both a higher basic component and the diesel fuel-based component, and both are calculated from total mass. The cheapest car in the class at the moment of purchase can therefore be its dearest car over a year.

This money does not buy an electric car

Not everything fits this price. Electric cars are 10.0% of sales across the whole market, but in this class eight of them were sold, or 0.1%. Plug-in hybrids are 7.0% of the market and 0.1% of the class. An electric car has a median price of 34,900 € across the market, nearly eight times the class median.

The SUV is the other thing missing. Across the whole market SUVs are 20.2% of sales, in this class 9.1%. They are also different cars: the median model year for an SUV in the class is 2008 and its reading 309,000 km, against 2021 and 102,000 km for an SUV across the market.

The common denominator is the calendar. The eight electric cars in the class have a median model year of 2013 and a median reading of 119,000 km, the lowest reading in the class. Across the whole market the median model year for an electric car is 2023. That ten-model-year gap says the question is not what an electric car survives but how many of them have had time to reach this age.

Hybrids are in the same position. The class sold 36 of them, or 0.4%, while across the whole market hybrids are 6.8% of sales at a median price of 22,990 €. Gas-powered cars sold 34 times.

What the money does buy is an easier question. Petrol is 58.8% of sales in the class, against 44.4% across the whole market. Manuals are 63.3%, against 40.4% across the market. The typical car at this price is a petrol manual, and that combination is twice as common here as it is on the market at large.

The missing fuels also show in what they cost elsewhere. A plug-in hybrid has a median price of 27,620 € across the market and a hybrid 22,990 €, against a median of 4,390 € in this class. It is not that the newer fuels are expensive here. They are not here at all.

The class sold more gas-powered cars than plug-in hybrids in August, and fewer than forty of either.

The kilometre is this class's currency

Between three and six thousand euros the price is not a tool for choosing. It is an entry fee, and after it the choice is made on the odometer. Hatchback 190,000 km, estate 305,000 km, SUV 309,000 km, and the most-driven common model in the class, the Mercedes-Benz E, 435,087 km: the prices are the same, the distances are not.

In this class the price is an entry fee. The choice is made on the odometer.

Two things follow for the buyer. Within the same budget it pays to compare kilometres rather than prices, because the prices barely differ. And moving up a size is paid for on the odometer: a bigger car for the same money is a more-driven car. Which of the two to weight depends on how much you intend to drive. A car bought for a hundred-kilometre daily commute is a different purchase from a car for the track up to the summer cottage, even at the same price.

For a first-time buyer the same rule is set out in a first car is chosen on kilometres first. In this price class kilometres are what you are really buying, and the price is only the limit the purchase has to fit inside.

The practical rule follows straight from the figures. Going up one body size costs roughly a hundred thousand kilometres at this price, and moving from petrol to diesel costs roughly the same. Neither move shows on the price tag.

See the cars in this class: €3,000–5,999