Buying a car in Sweden: 328 adverts and what to check

What is being sold

Seekuro holds 328 live vehicle adverts from Sweden, and unlike most categories here this one is mostly whole cars rather than parts.

The current adverts are a fair picture of the Swedish second hand market. Hybrids and plug in hybrids are everywhere: Toyota RAV4 Plug-in Hybrid AWD-i in Style Premium trim with a JBL system and a panoramic roof, RAV4 Hybrid AWD-i 2.5 Executive with a towbar, RAV4 Plug-in Hybrid Active. German estates and saloons follow: an Audi A6 Avant 2.0 TDI Quattro S Tronic with towbar and electric tailgate, a Volkswagen Passat Sportscombi 2.0 TDI DSG with 190 horsepower from 2018. Then the Swedish staples, a Volvo XC70 D4 AWD Geartronic from 2014 with 181 horsepower, and the classics, a Saab 900 GLi from 1984. Electric appears too, including a Tesla Model Y Performance with 534 horsepower, a heat pump and a panoramic roof. Alongside the cars sit parts and accessories, such as components for the Mercedes-Benz W124.

What it costs

Asking prices run from about 250 to 499,700 Swedish crowns, and the middle of the market sits at 214,800.

Those numbers describe two different markets sharing one category. The bottom, a few hundred crowns, is parts and accessories. The middle, a little over 200,000 crowns, is a five to ten year old well equipped family car, which is exactly what the RAV4, Passat and XC70 adverts are. The top, approaching half a million, is a recent performance electric or a nearly new premium model.

Three features move Swedish prices more than buyers from elsewhere expect: four wheel drive, a towbar, and a heater. They are not luxuries in this market.

What to check on a Swedish car

Start with the official record rather than the advert. Sweden keeps a vehicle register and an annual roadworthiness inspection, the besiktning, and the inspection history tells you what the seller will not. Ask for the registration number and look it up before you travel. Ask for the date of the last inspection and what was remarked on.

Then the things that are specific to this climate. Ask whether the car has been driven on salted winter roads and ask for photographs of the underside, the sills and the wheel arches. Rust in Sweden starts underneath and arrives late.

Ask whether a block heater or a parking heater is fitted and whether it works, because retrofitting one is expensive and a Swedish buyer will ask you the same question later.

Ask about the second set of wheels. Winter tyres are a legal requirement in winter conditions in Sweden, and a car sold without a winter set is a car that needs an immediate purchase. Ask for the tread depth on both sets and the year stamped on the winter tyres.

For a hybrid or an electric, the battery is the car. Ask for a recent state of health reading, ask whether the traction battery has ever been replaced or repaired, and ask whether the charging cable and any home charger are included.

Buying across a border

A good share of the demand for Swedish cars comes from outside Sweden, and the mechanics are manageable if you plan.

Agree who handles the export paperwork and the deregistration before the money moves. Budget for registration, inspection and any tax in your own country, and check those figures yourself rather than taking the seller's word for them, because they vary and they change.

Transport is either driving it home on temporary plates or paying for a transporter. Get a quote before you agree a price, because on a 200,000 crown car the transport is a real number.

Never send a deposit to hold a car you have not seen. This is the single most common fraud in cross border car buying, and the advert that is a little too cheap is where it happens.

Writing an advert that sells a car

Put the make, model, drivetrain, year and the one feature buyers search for in the title. "Volvo XC70 D4 AWD Geartronic 2014 181hp" is a search. "Volvo estate" is not.

List the equipment in plain words. Swedish adverts do this well and buyers rely on it: towbar, panoramic roof, parking heater, four wheel drive, the audio system, the trim level.

Give the mileage, the service history and the inspection date, and say who has serviced it. A documented history is worth real money here.

Photograph the whole car from four corners in daylight, then the interior, the boot, the engine bay, the tyres with their tread, the dashboard with the ignition on showing the mileage and any warning lights, and every scratch and dent you know about. A seller who photographs the damage is trusted on everything else.

Because Seekuro publishes the advert in six languages, a Swedish car becomes visible to buyers in Germany, Finland, Norway and Spain. For well equipped four wheel drive cars that is a genuinely wider market than the domestic one.

Paying safely

For a sum this size, a direct bank transfer made at the moment of handover is the normal and sensible method. Meet at a bank or at the seller's home address, never in a car park at night.

Write a sale agreement, both parties signing, with the date, the price, the registration number, the mileage at handover and the identity details of both people. Both keep a copy. It costs ten minutes and it is the document that settles any later argument about what was agreed.

Check that the person selling is the person on the registration. If they are selling on behalf of somebody else, ask for written authority.