Annual used car sales in Great Britain increased by 1.18% year-on-year in 2014 to 6.89m vehicles in 2014, according to Experian.
This was the highest number since 2008, when 7.21m vehicles were sold, and came despite a small (0.21%) year-on-year drop in sales in Q4.
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Andrew Ballard, automotive director at Experian said: "The steady increase in used car sales is encouraging for motor traders, although the market is still down from when more than seven million vehicles transacted annually before the economic downturn."
The Greater London region saw the largest growth over the year, up 2.25%, followed by the North West (2.09%) and Scotland (2.06%). East Anglia was the only region to see a fall in used car sales over the course of the year, with total 2014 sales 5.24% below the 2013 figure.
Ballard said: ""The variation in used car sales across the regions shows that car national dealer groups in particular can’t treat any two areas the same if they are to meet the needs of their customers. Gaining a greater understanding of the evolving needs of people living within their area will help to ensure cars spend less time on their forecourt."
With 70,889 vehicles sold, the Ford Fiesta was the top selling used car vehicle, shortly followed by the Ford Focus, of which 70,086 were sold.
Vauxhall took the third and fourth spots on the top selling list with the Corsa (68,997 sold) and the Astra (58,857 sold), respectively, while the Volkswagen Golf was the fifth best-selling used car with 51,616 cars sold.
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By GlobalDataWhile used car sales did grow, this growth was much slower than in the new car segment, where Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) figures revealed 9.3% year-on-year growth over 2014.
On this topic, Ballard said: "Competitive deals from manufacturers, particularly around finance packages and PCPs, are one reason why new car registrations are rising faster than used transactions. These deals are less prevalent in the used car market and, where they do exist, they tend to be offered on younger cars purchased from dealers."
