Event: Which brands won the battle in May 2026?

May 2026 was not as negative as expected for the second-hand car market. According to statistics from AAA Data, primarily there were 409,141 transactions, a loss of 0.8% compared to last year.

However, when the calendar effect was deleted, that is, when the period between 2025 and 2026 was shortened by two days (from 19 business days to 17 business days), the growth was 3.3%. In this particular context, the main brands on the French market experienced different fates.

achievements of the month

Having completed 6,378 transactions across all channels, Hyundai recorded the best growth of the period with +22% in the same number of days. The assumption of electrification of the series for several years contributed to the availability of stock to meet consumer demand.

Between gasoline-LPG dual fuel and electrification, Dacia has also managed to play an interesting role in the second-hand car market in May 2026. The Romanian brand finished the month with 14,690 units and a growth of 17.4% on a like-for-like basis.

Toyota rounded out the podium for the most spectacular flights. Leaving all calendar effects aside, the exchange of 16,950 used cars corresponds to a gain of 12.5% ​​for the Japanese brand, which rose to sixth place between BMW and Audi. The hybrid offering contributed to this success.

In the rest of the ranking of the twenty brands that best represent the second-hand car market, we need to particularly highlight the remarkable performance of Renault, whose number of resold examples increased by 11.7% to 77,434 units in May. Additionally, Ford (+11.5% to 13,935 VO), Fiat (+10.2% to 9,912 VO) and Kia (+9.8% to 5,625 VO) brands stood out.

falls of the moon

Before we talk about the brands that are actually in decline, let’s talk about a few brands that are performing better compared to last year. This is the case of Citroën, which was first up 1.9% to 42,960 units. Audi (16,550 units) and Nissan (8,386 units) were up just 1.7% each. For Suzuki, 3,647 units correspond to 0.1% more than last year on an equivalent basis.

And there were very few disappointments. Then there are two premium brands. Mercedes, which fell to eighth place in the rankings, carried out 15,581 transactions; this is 1.9% less on an iso-day basis than May 2025.

At Volvo, the results are more mixed. Of course, sales of the Swedish range fell again by 1.4% to 2,785 units, but Volvo returned to the top 20 in May, unlike last year, while the DS fell simultaneously by 4.5% to 2,772 units.

Finally, note that the top twenty brands combined 379,822 transactions, accounting for 92.8% of the total used cars traded in May 2026. In absolute value, the decline from one year to the next was 4.5%, but in an equivalent number of days the growth would be 6.8%.