Bunyamin Celikkaya, a resident of Istanbul, has spent a year sifting through ads for a replacement for his 10-year-old car. His hunt seems to have become impossible amid the collapse of the Turkish lira that has fueled equally dizzying price hikes. The price of Celikkaya’s car has increased, but so has the price of the secondhand vehicles he would like to buy and the sum he needs to add to bridge the gap. “Car prices are rising by the day,” he said. “I am still waiting but am not really hopeful.” 

Vehicles over 10 years old like Celikkaya’s have come to account for 55% of used cars on sale in Turkey, according to the car consultancy firm EBS. Cars older than five years make up 80%. Yet market trends show all of them are becoming unaffordable for many ordinary Turks. 

Emre Ozpeynirci, a journalist who writes about the automotive sector, has found that 25% of the 13.1 million passenger cars in Turkey are 21 years old or older. “That is, 25% of cars are [technically] scrap. And the average age of cars is 13.2 years,” he told Al-Monitor.

According to inflation data from the Turkish Statistical Institute, the prices of gasoline and diesel vehicles rose by 6.4% and 12.1%, respectively, in November. Yet insiders dispute the figures, asserting that the price hikes have been much higher, stoked by the slump of the lira, which lost more than 25% of its value in November alone.