UAE’s second-hand car shoppers keen on speed, power and style

Dubai / Emirates Business

dubizzle, the UAE’s leading classifieds platform, has announced user trends and behaviours on the motors section in Ramadan 2016, revealing an increase in demand for sports cars during this period.
The holy month marks a major season for the automotive industry in the UAE with many residents
buying new cars and selling current ones. With dubizzle receiving over 5 million monthly active users to
the platform, and an average of
over 1.68 million active users per month to the motors section alone, the platform has released its findings to educate the community on market trends.
In Ramadan 2016, the most searched brands were Range Rover, BMW and Toyota, reinforcing the wide selection of vehicles available on the dubizzle platform for all users – whether they are seeking a luxury, premium or entry-level car.
The most searched models were the Porsche GTS, Mercedes Benz AMG and Dodge SRT, which is consistent with last year’s findings. Commenting on the results, Jean-Pierre Mondalek, General Manager of Motors at dubizzle said: “Give an automotive consumer time and great content and their inner enthusiast will come out. Our users have voted with their searches and clicks and indicated a strong appetite for aspirational sports models. Lucky for them, the UAE automotive market is very liquid and they can find their dream cars at attractive prices on dubizzle.”
The top search terms were ‘urgent’, ‘turbo’ and ‘convertible’ indicating that buyers are looking for something fast, fun and at a bargain this summer.
“The UAE automotive market is special in that the ratio of new car sales vs. used is almost 1:1, driven by the market’s appetite to replace vehicles more frequently, while in more mature markets you see used car sales at a multiple of new.
This dynamic presents unique opportunities for local second-hand buyers to find great value in ‘nearly new’ vehicles. For example, over 20% of vehicles listed on dubizzle have covered under 30,000km,” added Mondalek.
Car searches on the platform during Ramadan peaked at 1pm with over 1.46 million page views and 107,000 visits to the motors section, followed by 11am with over 1.37 million page views and 100,000 visits, and 12pm with 1.31 million page views with 99,000 visits.