In Uusimaa the price tells you about the seller, not the car

In brief

• The median price of a car bought from a dealer is 19,990 € and of one bought privately 3,550 €. This is not the same car at two prices but two different sets of cars.
• Three deals out of four are made at a dealer; across the country the dealer share is 60.1%. The gap shows directly in how old the cars are that change hands in the region.
• Of 2026 cars, 100.0% were sold through a dealer, and of 2003 cars 22.4%. At the cheapest end a dealer is in practice not an option for the buyer.
• Electric accounts for 16.8% of sales in Uusimaa and diesel 24.4%. Across the country the order is the other way round: diesel 32.1% and electric 10.1%.

Half of the deals fit between 5,900 and 27,900 euros

Uusimaa is the country's largest single used car market. 27.8% of the sales in the first five days of August were made here, against 11.2% for Pirkanmaa in second place and 8.9% for Varsinais-Suomi. No other region reaches even half of Uusimaa's share. Size does not mean uniformity, though: the same set holds both some of the most expensive cars in the country and some very old ones, and that is exactly what makes the regional average hard to read.

The median price of completed deals is 14,890 €. That is 5,400 € above the national median of 9,490 €. For an individual buyer the median still says little, because the middle half of the deals is unusually wide: half of them fell between 5,900 and 27,900 €, a span worth 147.8% of the median.

When the middle half is one and a half times as wide as the median, the median is not a typical car. It is the boundary between two sets.

Compared with other regions, Uusimaa tops the price table. The median completed deal is 8,000 € in Pirkanmaa, 11,000 € in Varsinais-Suomi and 6,100 € in Pohjois-Pohjanmaa. No other region reaches Uusimaa's level. The order is not a ranking of the cars' quality but of their age: the median model year of a car sold in Pohjois-Pohjanmaa is 2010, against 2017 in Uusimaa.

Nor does the order follow distance from the capital region. The median completed deal is 11,900 € in Kymenlaakso and 9,500 € in Etelä-Karjala, but 6,990 € in Kanta-Häme, which borders Uusimaa. Price levels therefore do not spread outwards from Uusimaa in rings; they follow how old the cars are that change hands in each region.

The body-type mix says the same thing another way. The SUV is the most common body in Uusimaa with a 25.7% share, against 19.8% nationally. The estate stays at 22.6% here, even though it is the most common body in the country at 25.5%. Hatchbacks account for 22.0% of sales and saloons 14.7%. The median price of an SUV is 29,800 € and of a hatchback 8,800 €, so the choice of body alone moves a buyer from one end of the range to the other.

A car sold here is a 2017 model, elsewhere a 2013

The median model year of a car sold in Uusimaa is 2017 and the median mileage 141,000 km. The national figures are 2013 and 193,000 km. Four model years is not a small gap, and it shows on the odometer too: the national median car has covered a good third more than one sold in Uusimaa.

The age gap is not a matter of taste but a consequence of who the car is bought from. The median model year of a car sold by a dealer is 2020 and the median mileage 113,250 km. For a car sold privately the figures are 2007 and 255,000 km. With the dealer share of sales at 73.7% in Uusimaa, the regional median inevitably settles at the newer end regardless of what individual buyers are looking for.

The same car is therefore not more expensive here. A different car is sold here.

Mileage separates the regions even more sharply than price. The median is 141,000 km in Uusimaa, 170,000 km in Varsinais-Suomi, 197,338 km in Päijät-Häme and 248,000 km in Pohjois-Pohjanmaa. The gap follows the age of the cars traded: the newer a car is when it changes hands, the less time it has had to accumulate mileage. In Uusimaa a car moves to its next owner earlier, and that is the mechanism behind all of the region's figures.

In the middle of the distribution price and age line up. Cars from the 2017 model year have a median price of their own of 14,800 €, almost exactly the regional median, and a median mileage of 156,000 km. That is what should happen if price follows age. At the ends of the distribution it no longer does, and that is precisely why the median gives a picture that is right in the middle and misleading at the edges.

This is also where comparisons between regions go wrong most easily. The median completed deal in Lappi is 4,000 €, which differs from the national median more than any other region's figure. It should not be read as the price level of the area, because older cars are traded there: the median model year of a car sold in Lappi is 2008 and the median mileage 274,000 km. The gap between Uusimaa and Lappi is above all a gap in how old a car is when it changes hands.

The Golf here is a 2010 model, the Corolla a 2020

The best-selling model is the Volkswagen Golf, with a 2.3% share of sales in Uusimaa. Its median price here is 4,900 €, its median model year 2010 and its median mileage 213,500 km. Second is the Mercedes-Benz C with a median price of 14,990 € and third the Skoda Octavia at 9,900 €. Fourth comes the Toyota Corolla, with a median price of 21,990 €. The Golf's national figures are covered in a separate article.

A high median price invites you to read the Uusimaa market as a wealthy one, but the model-level figures do not support that. The region's best-selling car costs 4,900 €, less than a third of the regional median. The Toyota Yaris also stays at 9,240 euros and the Volkswagen Passat at 10,400 euros. What lifts the median is not the best-selling models but a smaller group of new cars that are almost always sold by a dealer. Judging the regional market by the model list alone would give a far lower figure than the median suggests.

The gap between the Golf and the Corolla is not a gap in the models' value but in their generation. The Golf sold in Uusimaa is a 2010 model, that is the sixth generation, which was in production from 2008 to 2013 and was replaced by the seventh generation in January 2013. The Corolla's median model year is 2020, which is another era entirely: Toyota brought the Corolla name back to Europe in 2019 in place of the Auris, and that generation was sold in Europe as a hybrid. The Corolla's median mileage is 94,000 km, less than half the Golf's. The two names at the top of the list are therefore not competing with each other at all.

The same divide appears within a single brand. The Yaris has a median model year of 2014 and a median mileage of 157,000 km, making it a car from a different era than the Corolla from the same brand. In Uusimaa Toyota therefore sells both a recent dealer trade-in and a small car more than ten years old, and the badge alone says almost nothing about the price.

The bottom of the list repeats the same divide. The Ford Focus is ninth with a median price of 8,850 € and a 2016 model year, the Kia Ceed eleventh at 7,490 € and 2015. Alongside them on the same list sit the Volvo V60 with a median price of 24,390 € and a 2020 model year and the Tesla Model Y at 35,600 € and 2023. In between come the Nissan Qashqai at 10,980 € and the Mercedes-Benz E at 12,900 €, whose median mileage is 209,000 km.

Under 5,900 euros buys a car from the early 2010s

The cheaper quarter of sales in Uusimaa stays below 5,900 euros. Looked at by model year, the boundary falls around the turn of the decade: a 2011 car has a median price of 5,200 € and a median mileage of 255,740 km. At this end the buyer is not choosing a trim level but how many kilometres they are willing to buy along with the car.

The boundary of the dearer quarter is not crossed until the 2020s. The 2022 model year has a median price of 28,390 € and a median mileage of 69,000 km, and at the newest end a 2026 car has a median price of 52,175 € with 5,000 km on the clock. The top quarter therefore only begins at the 2022 model year: the year-older 2021 cars stay below the line with a median price of 23,900 €.

At the newest end the steps are largest in euros. The 2025 model year has a median price of 45,200 € and the 2024 one 38,000 €, with median mileages of 18,000 km and 43,000 km. A single model year costs more there than an entire car costs at the 2010 model year. This end is also almost entirely in the hands of dealers.

In the middle the step is even and predictable. The 2019 model year has a median price of 17,990 € and a median mileage of 120,000 km, the 2018 one 15,890 € and 139,000 km, and the 2016 one 12,340 € and 182,000 km. Across this stretch every model year brings both a lower price and more kilometres, and the buyer chooses which one to pay.

A second boundary runs between the 2014 and 2013 model years. The price falls from 9,790 euros to 6,900 euros, but the median mileage jumps from 182,000 kilometres to 221,000. After that the median mileage never drops below 215,000 kilometres in any older model year.

The step between model years is steepest at the new end and flattens at the old. Between the 2020 and 2015 model years the median price falls from 20,890 euros to 10,980 euros, but between 2010 and 2005 the range is 4,850 euros to 3,000 euros. At the old end the year tells you less and less about the price. In model years older than 2013 the median mileage settles between 240,000 and 286,000 kilometres and barely moves from one year to the next, so mileage is a poor discriminator there. The same pattern appeared nationally in cars under 3,000 euros.

Three cars out of four are bought from a dealer

The dealer share of sales in Uusimaa is 73.7%, against 60.1% nationally. A car bought from a dealer has a median price of 19,990 € and a median mileage of 113,250 km. A car bought privately has a median price of 3,550 € and 255,000 km. Between the two sets there is no gradient but a gulf.

The gap is not just the seller's margin, because the two sets already differ as cars. It shows by model year: of 2026 cars, 100.0% were sold through a dealer, of 2010 cars 52.4% and of 2003 cars 22.4%. The older the car, the more likely it is to change hands between two private individuals.

The dealer share also varies by model, and it follows the model's age. Of Tesla Model Ys, 95.0% were sold through a dealer, of Volvo V60s 94.1% and of Nissan Qashqais 92.1%. For the Golf the dealer share is 52.3%, which makes the region's best-selling model also the one where almost half of the deals are done between private individuals. For the Mercedes-Benz E the figure is 62.2%. Who a buyer ends up facing therefore depends largely on which model and which model year they pick.

The large dealer share also shows in what the region does not sell through dealers. Of 2007 cars, 36.4% were sold by a dealer and of 2005 cars 28.3%. When dealers do not take on the oldest end, that set moves into private sales, and that is exactly what pushes the median model year of private deals back into the 2000s.

The type of seller also carries a legal difference that does not show in the price. Consumer protection law applies to a sale where the seller is a trader: the seller is then liable for defects in the goods and must point out to the buyer the respects in which the goods depart from the ordinary. A sale between two private individuals is governed by the Sale of Goods Act, and the consumer protection provisions do not apply at all. In Uusimaa this covers 26.3% of sales.

In practice a buyer is therefore choosing two things at once: the price bracket and which law the sale falls under. The two are not independent, because at the cheapest end a dealer is usually not on offer and at the dearest end there is hardly a private seller to be found.

Diesel is in the minority here

In Uusimaa diesel accounts for 24.4% of sales, against 32.1% across the market. Petrol is 39.8% here and 44.2% nationally. Electric and plug-in cars take up the difference: the electric share is 16.8% in Uusimaa and 10.1% nationally, the plug-in hybrid share 10.0% against 6.2%.

The choice of fuel shows in more than the purchase price. The fuel component of the annual vehicle tax is levied on cars that do not run mainly on petrol: for a diesel passenger car it is 5.5 cents per day for each started 100 kilograms of total mass, and for a fully electric car 1.9 cents on the same basis. No fuel component is charged on a petrol car.

The tax is fixed and does not depend on kilometres driven, so it weighs proportionally most on those who drive little. It is also bought by those who drive a lot: the median mileage of a diesel sold in Uusimaa is 243,000 km. For a petrol car the figure is 172,000 km and for an electric car 54,000 km. The difference between fuels is therefore not only price but also how far the car has already been driven before the sale.

A diesel sold in Uusimaa is also a different car from one sold elsewhere in the country. Here its median price is 9,900 € and its median model year 2014; nationally 7,000 € and 2011. The gap runs the same way for petrol cars: 6,900 € and a 2011 model year here, 5,100 € and 2008 nationally. For electric cars there is practically no gap, since the national median price is 34,800 € and the model year the same 2023.

The hybrid sits between these both in price and in tax. Its share of sales in Uusimaa is 8.8%, its median price 23,490 € and its median model year 2022. Gas stays marginal with a 0.2% share. The median model years of hybrids and plug-in hybrids are 2022 and 2021, so they too belong to the end where the seller is almost always a dealer.

The sums for an electric car changed at the start of 2026. From 1 January 2026 the base component of the annual vehicle tax for a fully electric car is 171.18 euros a year for cars first registered after 1 October 2021. The median model year of an electric car sold in Uusimaa is 2023, so the change lands directly on the set that changes hands here. Their median mileage is 54,000 km, meaning these are little-driven cars whose running costs are weighted towards fixed charges.

What 14,890 euros does not stretch to

At the regional median price of 14,890 €, three groups stay out of reach. The median price of electric cars in Uusimaa is 34,990 €, of SUVs 29,800 € and of plug-in hybrids 27,890 €. All three start above the median, and the SUV is at the same time the region's most common body type. A buyer who sets their budget around the median therefore ends up in a different body type from the one the region sells most of.

The gearbox splits the set in two as well. The median price of an automatic is 21,900 € and of a manual 4,850 €. Automatics account for 70.0% of sales, but their median price is above the regional median, so a buyer shopping below the median ends up in a set that is both older and higher-mileage: the median model year of a manual is 2010 and its median mileage 213,000 km.

Below the median lies the part of the market that rarely comes up in conversation. The median price of an MPV is 8,990 € with a median model year of 2013, of a coupé 12,980 € and 2007, of a convertible 12,000 € and 2007. They are the region's smallest sets: MPVs are 4.2% of sales, coupés 2.9% and convertibles 1.6%. The median price therefore buys either an older speciality body or a newer ordinary car, not both.

In model years the median budget lands around the middle of the decade. The median price of a 2023 car is 32,880 € and of a 2020 car 20,890 €, so both stay out of reach. The median price reaches the 2017 model year, whose median mileage is 156,000 km. The median budget therefore buys a car about nine years old.

Below the median sit hatchbacks at a median price of 8,800 € and saloons at 12,200 €. They are older stock too: the median model year of a hatchback is 2015 and of a saloon 2013. Adding the estate at 11,249 €, the selection below the median price is in practice the estate, the hatchback and the saloon.

A buyer below the median price therefore meets a different market from the one the regional figures suggest. What is on offer to them is an older body type, more often a manual gearbox and more often a private seller. That is a different deal from the one the regional median describes, and the median therefore tells them almost nothing.

The price tells you about the seller, not the car

The practical consequence of Uusimaa's figures is that where you sit in the price range tells a buyer more about the seller and the car's age than about any individual car's condition. In deals below 5,900 euros the other party is usually another private individual and the car is a decade old. In deals above 27,900 euros the other party is almost always a dealer and the car is from the 2020s.

Two different trades therefore go on in the region. Buying from a dealer brings the consumer protection liability for defects into the deal, and the car is from the later 2010s or newer. A private sale is governed by the Sale of Goods Act, the car is typically from the late 2000s and has a quarter of a million kilometres on the clock. Both are entirely ordinary deals in Uusimaa, but they are not the same deal, and it is not worth comparing them through the price tag alone.

The pattern is not unique to Uusimaa, but it is steeper here. The national median price is 9,490 €, and the dealer share of sales there is lower, so the split is gentler. Uusimaa has more dealers and the cars they sell are newer, and that is what stretches the region's price range wide.

The 5,400 € gap between the Uusimaa and national medians therefore does not mean the same car costs more here. It means newer cars are sold here and more often through a dealer. For a buyer who has settled on a price bracket, the regional median is the wrong benchmark: the right one is the bracket they are buying in, and within it the model year decides.

The two tables together say more than either does alone. In the model year rows the dealer share falls steadily from newest to oldest, and in the model list the same divide shows at the level of names: new plug-in cars are sold by dealers, old hatchbacks and saloons between private individuals.

One concrete thing follows for a buyer. Uusimaa is worth coming to for the selection, not the price: more deals are done in the region than anywhere else, but their centre of gravity sits higher than in the rest of the country. At the cheapest end the selection here is just as old as elsewhere, and it is bought just as much from another private individual. The size of the region therefore does not change what a small budget buys, only how much choice there is at the upper end.

See cars from 10,000 to 14,999 euros