Articles
17 articles
ModelsThe Toyota Corolla’s price curve has a ten-year hole in it
The Toyota Corolla’s price ladder steps down tidily one model year at a time, until it breaks. A 2019 Corolla sold for 19,990 €, and the next model year down is 2008 at 4,800 €. The ten model years in between barely exist on the Finnish used market, and the model’s own median price of 6,900 € lands in the middle of that hole. It is a price at which a Corolla is almost never sold. 2,246 Corollas changed hands in Finland between 16 July and 14 September 2026, and they fall into two groups with little in common.
Buyer's guideA registration number shows the reading, age explains it
The photos, the mileage and the condition report in a listing are all written by the seller. A registration number brings the register alongside them: technical data, the next inspection window and the latest odometer reading recorded at a roadworthiness inspection (katsastus). None of those numbers means anything on its own, because they follow age: for cars first registered in 2021 the median recorded reading is 66,000 km, and for 2006 cars it is 253,000 km. The same reading is different news in a different year, and that difference is why the number is worth looking up.
ModelsThe generation sets a Mercedes-Benz C's price, not the badge
Make and model usually tell you roughly what price bracket a car sits in. The Mercedes-Benz C does not follow the rule. Under that one name, 2,001 cars changed hands between 13 July and 7 September 2026, and half of the prices actually paid fell between 3,950 € and 16,990 €. At the bottom end that buys a car built almost twenty years ago, at the top end one under ten years old. The median of 9,000 € sits between the two halves and describes neither.
Buyer's guideAn automatic costs kilometres, not euros
Choosing a gearbox feels like a matter of taste, and the price list makes it look like a small one. Once the budget is fixed between 10,000 € and 14,999 €, the median price of an automatic is 12,900 € and of a manual 12,490 €, and the median model year of the cars sold is 2016 in both cases. The difference sits elsewhere: the automatic reads 178,000 km on the odometer and the manual 138,000 km. This piece explains where the gap comes from, which models show it most sharply, and what the choice rules out.
Monthly reviewJuly's median price describes none of the best-selling models
Used car prices tend to be discussed as a single figure, and for July that figure is 11,480 €. Yet not one of the ten best-selling models actually changes hands at that price: eight of them sit below it and two above. Across July's 49,358 sales the top of the list is filled by old, high-mileage cars such as the Volkswagen Golf and the Skoda Octavia, while the more expensive half of the market is made up of newer SUVs and electric cars. The median falls between these two groups and describes neither.
OwnershipA car fails its inspection underneath, not on the dashboard
On the morning of the test, plenty of people wipe the lights clean and top up the screenwash. The failure almost always comes from somewhere the driver cannot see from the seat: axles, wheels and suspension accounted for 308,940 defects that caused a failure in the 2025 periodic inspections, more than any other category on the car. Brakes come second. Below are the five points where preparation most often goes to waste, and what you can do about each of them a week earlier. Most of them can be checked on your own drive without special tools.
Electric carsA used electric car's price reflects its age, not its fuel
The price tag on a used electric car looks nothing like the one on a petrol car. In July 50,612 cars changed hands in Finland, and the median price was 34,900 € for an electric car and 5,950 € for a petrol one. That gap does not measure what sits under the bonnet. The typical electric car sold was a 2023 model and the typical petrol car a 2009 model, so what stands side by side is a three-year-old car and a seventeen-year-old one.
OwnershipVehicle tax follows emissions and mass, not the price of the car
Two cars that cost the same can build up annual vehicle tax at different rates, because the sum takes no account of the purchase price. The tax is made up of a basic tax, which follows the car’s carbon dioxide emissions, and a driving power tax, which follows total mass and fuel type. According to the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom), the lowest basic tax is 106.21 € a year, and it is paid by exactly the fuel type whose cars are the most expensive on the used market. Before the sale you can check the tax, on the day of sale the liability changes hands, and after that the tax runs one day at a time whether or not the car is driven.
ModelsSkoda Octavia prices have a step at the 2013 model year
The same model name covers both a four-year-old estate and a car over twenty years old. A Skoda Octavia changed hands 1,413 times between 18 July and 17 August 2026, and the median completed sale price is 8,800 €. Half of the sales fell between 3,190 € and 16,990 €, so the median does not describe any real car. The price does not slide down smoothly from one model year to the next; it drops in steps. The steepest step lands on 2013.
PricesUnder 3,000 €, the priciest model is also the most driven
In the under-3,000 € price class, the median odometer reading of a car sold is 310,867 km. Within the class, though, money does not buy a less-driven car. Measured by median achieved sale price, the most expensive model in the class is the Mercedes-Benz E-Class, and its median odometer reading is 498,100 km, 60.2% above the class median. The figures come from sales made between 1 and 5 August 2026, none of which has yet been confirmed.- Buyer's guide
For the same money, a bigger car means more kilometres
Sooner or later a used-car buyer has to choose between two cars that cost the same but have nothing else in common. The same money buys a 2017 Ford Fiesta with 96,000 km or a 2011 Mercedes-Benz E with 350,000 km. The usual question is which one weighs more on the price, age or the odometer. Neither of them does once the price is fixed: the two are what a bigger car is paid for with. The same split shows up in fuel type, transmission and in who is doing the selling. 
Buyer's guideTest-driving a used car: what to check before you buy
A test drive tells you more about a used car than the sales pitch does, provided you pick the right route and start the engine from cold. Register data from the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom) shows the odometer reading and the inspection history before you buy.