UniCredit Leasing: Repossessed cars sell at a loss

Leasing companies have a hard time reselling the thousands of cars repossessed by leasing companies from clients who are no longer able to pay their instalments, and usually sell them at a loss, says Dan Constantinescu, executive sales manager of UniCredit Leasing Corporation, the largest company on the Romanian leasing market. "Repossessed cars are not easy to sell, this takes quite a long time, at least a month or two, and they are sold at a loss, anyway. So far, we have not had any contract with at least a zero loss," says Constantinescu. According to some estimates, the number of cars that have been repossessed since the last quarter of last year has exceeded 10,000 units. Clients returning the cars to the leasing company lose both the down payment and the instalments paid until then. "The number of repossessed cars has risen significantly compared with last year, but this figure seems too big, especially considering our own experience. I think ten thousand cars is a lot. We repossessed 150 cars in the first quarter of the year, so the ratio speaks for itself," explains the executive manager of UniCredit Leasing.