Cars and fraud, Italy amazes Europe

In Italy the market ofused car continues to enjoy good health (in the first half of the year, for every 100 new cars, 181 second-hand ones were sold). In Europe the United Kingdom remains the market more transparent with just 2.1% of cars having falsified mileage and 17.8% of vehicles damaged.

Next in the ranking Italy is second and, regarding damage, it even stands out with only 12.6% of cars damaged, followed by Sweden (18.3%), Germany (23.8%) and Switzerland (55.3%). The data emerges from carVertical’s annual study of 25 countries to determine the level of transparency in their second-hand vehicle markets (the Market Transparency Index).

What is the Market Transparency Index

To obtain the Market Transparency Index, each country was classified and analyzed using the following metrics:

• Percentage of odometers with falsified readings
• Falsified average mileage (in kilometers)
• Percentage of cars damaged
• Relative amount of damage
• Percentage of used cars imported
• Average age of cars checked
• These metrics are essential to understanding market transparency, as they indicate the level of risk for used car buyers. The higher these figures, the lower the level of transparency in the market.

Here are the most and least transparent used car markets in Europe.

The most transparent countries

In general car buyers in Western Europe and Scandinavia are less likely to come across mileage fraud o hidden defects because there are stricter laws, newer cars and other factors that ensure buyers can trust the history and quality of the vehicle more.

Unlike continental Europe, the United Kingdom has high import tariffs and uses mostly right-hand drive cars. As a result, only 2% of vehicles checked on carVertical in the UK were imported. The top five most transparent countries include Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Sweden. Regarding timed cars, Switzerland has a share of 2.1%, followed by Germany (2.8%), Italy (3.5%) and Sweden (4.1%).

L’wide gap among the regions of the continent it is demonstrated by the fact that only Slovenia entered the Top Ten, all the other Eastern countries achieved low results.

The less virtuous

The least transparent countries in the study were Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Estonia, where the highest percentage of cars with falsified mileage and damage was recorded. In particular, the highest number of cases of mileage fraud among European countries was recorded in Latvia (11.1%) and Ukraine (9.6%), while the highest percentage of damaged cars was found in Poland (62.1%) and Slovakia (60.5%).

The Czech Republic ranked 14th (4.3% of vehicles timed and 52.1% damaged), Slovakia came in 16th place (3.1% timed and 60.5% damaged) and Hungary ranked 17th (5.4% timed and 54.9% damaged). Hungary has maintained its position since 2023, while Slovakia has lost 2 positions.