In the second quarter of this year, the number of used cars registered in the country increased by a fifth compared to the same period last year.
Read more Ukrainians spoke about how they are «hunted» by Russian drones: «It’s just a safari»
Sellers claim that this and other signs of market growth are not a coincidence or related to the return of money accumulated in private pension funds.
“It would be hard to call it a coincidence,” said a market expert to “Vakarų ekspresas.”
Grew by a fifth
Official statistics show that the Lithuanian used passenger car sales market became more active after April.
According to data from the company “Autotyrimai,” 52.2 thousand used cars were registered for the first time in the country in the second quarter of this year – meaning that this many non-new cars were imported into Lithuania. Compared to the same period in 2025, this number grew by 21% – last year, from April to June, there were 43.1 thousand such registrations.
This year, the number of used passenger car ownership transfer operations also increased by 23% – this category mainly includes vehicles sold by one resident to another.
In the second quarter of 2026, there were 68.8 thousand such operations, compared to 56 thousand a year earlier. The most noticeable jump was recorded in April – last year, almost 18.9 thousand used passenger car ownership transfers were registered, while this year their number already exceeded 25.5 thousand.
“Autotyrimai” presents these figures after analyzing “Regitra” data.
A different spring
Since this year, residents have been given the opportunity to withdraw from the private pension accumulation system, and about 700 thousand Lithuanian residents have taken advantage of this, with the saved money paid out quarterly.
From January to March, after liberalizing the system, about 580 thousand people left it, with funds returning about 3 billion euros, according to the Lithuanian Investment and Pension Funds Association (LIPFA) – an average of 6.7 thousand euros per person who withdrew.
And some people spent part of the money on purchasing used cars – this is confirmed by vehicle sellers and intermediaries. They say this year does not correspond to long-term market trends.
Vilma Gavėnaitė, a representative of the company managing the “BRC autocentras” brand, says that sales shot up shortly after the pension fund money was paid out.
“Spring has been active in sales for our company for many years (…) This year’s spring is exceptional because sales in April already shot up – pension fund money that was returned entered the market.
In the first days of April, sales doubled, and this is definitely unusual even in the steadily growing used car market of recent years,” V. Gavėnaitė told “Vakarų ekspresas.”
Dovilė Lukavičiūtė, head of one of the largest vehicle sales advertisement portals in the country, autoplius.lt, told “Vakarų ekspresas” that there are many signs that the money withdrawn from the funds was spent on cars, with changes observed since April that cannot be explained by seasonality.
“In April, when the money reached residents, the number of private ads increased by 50% compared to the previous period. People who received payments bought newer cars and put their old ones up for sale themselves.
The same is shown by dealers’ behavior: car turnover accelerated significantly, the business recorded record sales, and actively sold off accumulated fleets – cars are sold faster, and their quantities have also increased significantly,” she said in her comment.
According to D. Lukavičiūtė, such behavior of Lithuanian residents cannot be considered a coincidence with the pension fund money payout.
“When all these signals – transaction records, the return of private sellers to the market, and accelerated business turnover – coincide in time exactly with the start of pension payments, it would be hard to call it a coincidence.
Read more After the devastating storm – meteorologist’s message: changes are coming
In our assessment, the second-pillar money had a real impact on the used car market,” says D. Lukavičiūtė.
Second wave
In the second quarter, more than 100 thousand people withdrew from private pension accumulation, and about 670 million euros were paid out to them – according to LIPFA calculations, the average payment was about 7.6 thousand euros.
Part of this money again went to used car sellers.
“In July, we again saw a significantly larger number of buyers, which only confirms the fact that a considerable part of the second-pillar funds was thoughtfully allocated for consumption, which clearly accelerated the growth of our country’s entire economy in the second quarter of this year,” says “BRC autocentras” representative V. Gavėnaitė.
The state enterprise “Regitra” also confirms that the period from April, in terms of car registration volumes, is exceptional, and this is also linked to residents’ money withdrawn from pension accumulation funds.
“Every spring, an increase in car registrations is observed, but this year in April and July it became exceptional also due to second-pillar pension funds.
Much larger customer flows are noticeable both after the first and second stages of payments. The registration flow in the second quarter of this year increased by almost 20% compared to the same period last year,” “Regitra” announced at the end of July.
Cars did not get more expensive
Autoplius.lt head D. Lukavičiūtė says that judging by vehicle sales transactions, April-June this year was one of the best recently.
“In the second quarter, 116.9 thousand transactions were concluded in Lithuania – 24% more than last year, and this is one of the best quarters in the past decade,” she said in her comment to “Vakarų ekspresas.”
The situation changed most in April.
“April was clearly a turning point in transactions: used car transaction growth reached 33 percent; local transactions grew by as much as 38, and imported cars by 25 percent, although the beginning of the year was even weaker than in 2025,” D. Lukavičiūtė noted.
It is also stated that the turnover of used car trade in the second quarter reached almost one billion euros – a total of 950.9 million euros.
The sales amount grew by 24.6% – almost as much as the transactions, because car prices did not increase.
“The growth was driven by the number of transactions, not prices – the average price of a used car remained almost unchanged,” says the head of autoplius.lt.
Cars of Klaipėda residents
Considering only passenger cars used in traffic, at the end of the first half of the year, there were almost 71 thousand passenger cars in Klaipėda, according to an analysis provided by the vehicle trade-related services website wheelstreet.lt.
The most cars in Klaipėda are from the manufacturer “Toyota” – 8.8 thousand, or they make up 12% of the entire fleet. Next are “Volkswagen” (8.4 thousand), BMW (5.9 thousand), “Audi” (5 thousand), “Opel” (4.3 thousand), “Škoda” (4.1 thousand), “Volvo” (4.1 thousand), “Ford” (3.9 thousand), “Mercedes-Benz” (3.8 thousand), and “Nissan” (2.3 thousand) cars.
The average age of a car registered in the port city was 13.7 years – less than Lithuania’s average (15.1 years).
In the Klaipėda district, at the end of June, there were 40.4 thousand passenger cars, which are slightly older than in the city – the average age is 14.7 years.
The top ten most popular brands were slightly different than in the city: “Volkswagen” (5.4 thousand), BMW (4 thousand), “Toyota” (3.8 thousand), “Audi” (3.5 thousand), “Volvo” (2.6 thousand), “Opel” (2.5 thousand), “Ford” (2.3 thousand), “Škoda” (2.2 thousand), “Mercedes-Benz” (1.9 thousand), and “Nissan” (1.2 thousand).
Read more The sky turned into hell: a look at the new and brutal stage of the war in Ukraine
