81 percent of Dutch people indicate that they cannot spend more than €15,000 on a new car. This is according to research by used car platform Autotrack.nl, conducted by Q&A. Figures from RAI Vereniging show that a new car will cost an average of €50,026 over the first half of 2025. An increase of almost €2,000 compared to last year.
This means that the average new price will exceed the €50,000 mark for the first time. The price of a new car has risen sharply in recent years. For example, in 2020 you paid an average of less than €38,500. That is more than €11,500 less than is currently the case, according to figures from industry association RAI Vereniging.
Cars have also become more expensive on average in the used car market. In 2022, a used car on Autotrack.nl cost an average of just over €22,000. Over the first six months of this year, that amount grew to more than €23,500, according to figures from the used car platform. However, this is a much smaller increase than in the case of new cars.
Large majority cannot afford a new car by a long shot
Earlier this year, Q&A, commissioned by AutoTrack, surveyed Dutch motorists on how much money they can spend on a car. 21 percent say they can spend a maximum of €5,000, 30 percent can spend a maximum of €10,000 and another 30 percent have a car budget of €15,000. Only 19 percent have more money left over for a car.
In addition to factors such as more expensive raw materials and inflation, the price increase of new cars in the Netherlands, according to Tim Roks, car expert at AutoTrack, is mainly due to the increase in BPM rates. This is the purchase tax that must be paid in our country on new cars. The amount is determined by the CO2 emissions.
“As a result, the BPM on a petrol Volkswagen Polo increased by €742,” says Roks. “That is more than 15 percent. And the car purchase tax on a hybrid Nissan Qashqai increased by €997, which is more than 11 percent. Moreover, the BPM exemption for new electric cars has been abolished, making them all €667 more expensive. A shame really, because the influx of increasingly affordable electric cars should cause the average new price to fall or rise less sharply,” says Roks.
Used car market attractive option for most buyers
Figures from industry organization Bovag show that the number of used cars sold in our country continues to grow. Over the first six months of this year, this represents a growth of more than 4 percent compared to the same period last year. The sale of new cars shows the opposite picture. There is a visible decrease of 5.5 percent over the same period.
According to Roks, the increasing popularity of used cars is a logical response to this: “Our platforms, AutoTrack and Gaspedaal.nl, offer many more choices for price-conscious buyers and people with a limited budget than the market for new cars. For example, in the two most popular price categories on AutoTrack, €5,000 to €10,000 and €10,000 to €15,000, there are more than 70,000 used cars for sale.”
And on the new market in the same categories? “Exactly zero cars,” says Roks. “The starting price of the cheapest new car in our country, the Dacia Sandero, is just over €18,000 – an amount that already exceeds the budget of many Dutch people.”