Irish dealers are buying from a changing used car market.
Used imports are up sharply. Older cars are behaving differently from younger stock. Vehicle prices continue to vary by age, fuel and body type. The cars arriving on forecourts in 2026 may look quite different from the stock dealers were buying a few years ago.
Finance panels need to keep up.
A dealership can source a car at the right price, prepare it well and find a customer. If the vehicle falls outside the criteria of the lenders on the panel, the finance conversation can become difficult quite quickly.
The same applies to brokers. A customer and vehicle may form a sensible case, yet lender criteria can narrow the places where that application can go.
For dealers and brokers in Ireland, there is a useful question to ask: does your finance panel still match the vehicles you are trying to fund?
Ireland’s Used Car Stock Is Changing
Ireland has seen a sharp rise in imported used cars during 2026.
SIMI recorded 63,815 used car imports between January and August, up 37% from 46,661 during the same period in 2025.
August alone saw 8,093 used imports registered, 36% more than a year earlier. New car registrations also increased, reaching 121,979 by the end of August, up 5% year on year.
For dealers, that means more vehicles flowing into the market and a broader sourcing pool. It can also mean changes in the age, mileage, value and type of vehicles sitting on the forecourt.
Those details matter to lenders.
Vehicle Age Can Quickly Narrow Your Finance Options
Vehicle age is one of the clearest examples of why stock and finance need to be reviewed together.
A lender may accept a vehicle based on its age today. Others look at how old the vehicle will be when the agreement ends. That creates a very different calculation.
Take a nine-year-old car funded over four years. It will be 13 years old when the agreement finishes.
If a lender has a maximum end-of-term vehicle age of 12 years, the car falls outside its criteria on that term.
Different lenders set different limits.
AIB, for example, currently states that a used vehicle financed through its HP product must be less than nine years old at the end of the agreement.
PTSB Asset Finance states that a vehicle cannot be more than 12 years old at the end of its consumer HP agreement. It also sets a maximum mileage of 180,000 km at the point of application.
The differences become important as the stock gets older.
A finance panel built around newer used cars can start to leave gaps when a dealership changes its buying strategy.
Older Used Cars Deserve More Attention In 2026
There is another reason to look closely at vehicle-age criteria.
Auto Trader’s August 2026 UK market data shows large differences in retail price performance between vehicle age groups.
Cars aged up to one year recorded a 2% year-on-year fall in retail prices. Cars aged one to three years fell 1.8%.
Cars aged 10 to 15 years recorded 6.9% year-on-year growth.
That is UK data, so it should not be used as a measure of Irish used car prices. It remains relevant to Irish dealers because the UK is an important source of imported used stock.
It also shows why age groups need to be viewed separately.
The overall UK used car market was broadly flat on price year on year in August. Within that average, the oldest age band in Auto Trader’s analysis was moving by almost 7%.
For an Irish dealer sourcing older stock, lender age criteria deserve a place in the buying decision.
Imported Stock Makes The Question More Relevant
Ireland’s 37% rise in used imports adds another layer.
A dealer may find an imported car that works commercially after VRT, transport, preparation and other costs. It may fill a useful gap in the dealership’s stock profile too.
The next question should be whether the finance panel can support it.
This becomes particularly useful when reviewing older or higher-mileage imports.
Check the vehicle’s current age, expected mileage when sold and the maximum realistic finance term. Then compare those details against the criteria across your lender panel.
A vehicle that fits four lenders at three years old may have far fewer options at nine or 10 years old.
The sticker on the windscreen stays the same. The funding options can look quite different.
Mileage Matters Alongside Age
Mileage can create another gap between stock and finance.
Two vehicles of the same age can have very different mileage. Imported vehicles can add further variety depending on their previous use.
Lenders set their own mileage limits.
PTSB, for example, currently states that a vehicle must have fewer than 180,000 km at application for its consumer HP product.
LMO can consider eligible vehicles with mileage up to 250,000 km, subject to our normal lending criteria.
That difference can matter for dealers specialising in older stock or vehicles that have covered more kilometres.
It can also matter to brokers receiving applications from a wide range of dealerships. Knowing the mileage limits across the panel helps identify where a case can sensibly be placed before an application goes in.
Finance Term Can Be Just As Important As Vehicle Age
Vehicle age and agreement term work together.
A dealer may know that a lender accepts a 10-year-old car. That only gives half the answer.
If the lender allows the vehicle to reach a maximum of 12 years old at the end of the agreement, the available term on that 10-year-old car may be limited. That can affect the customer’s monthly repayment.
A shorter term generally means the amount borrowed needs to be repaid over fewer months. That can make the monthly figure higher.
Dealers should therefore check more than whether a lender accepts a particular vehicle age.
Ask:
- What is the maximum vehicle age at the start?
- What is the maximum vehicle age at the end?
- What agreement terms are available at different vehicle ages?
- What mileage limits apply?
Those answers give a much clearer picture of the stock a lender can actually support.
The Customer Profile Needs To Match Too
The car is only one half of a finance application. Dealers and brokers also need lender coverage for the customers buying those vehicles.
Some customers will fit mainstream prime lending criteria. Others may have previous missed payments, a limited credit history or circumstances that require more individual assessment. A finance panel concentrated heavily around one credit profile can create gaps. That becomes a conversion issue.
The vehicle may be suitable. The customer may be able to afford the proposed repayments. The application may still fall outside the automated rules or credit appetite of a particular lender.
Our previous guide to getting more car finance approvals for Irish dealers and brokers looks at how lender mix and application quality can affect conversion.
For a dealership, the aim is sensible coverage across the customers it actually serves.
A Bigger Finance Panel Does Not Automatically Improve Coverage
Counting lenders is a fairly crude way to measure a finance panel.
Five lenders with similar vehicle and credit criteria may give a dealer less coverage than a smaller panel with clearly different areas of appetite. Overlap matters.
If every lender prefers similar vehicle ages, mileage and customer credit profiles, the same applications may struggle across the whole panel.
Dealers and brokers can get a clearer view by mapping what each lender actually does.
Look at vehicle criteria first. Then customer profile, loan size, deposit requirements, terms and underwriting approach.
Finally, look at actual results.
Which lender receives the most proposals?
Where do your approvals come from?
Which types of customer are regularly declined?
Are certain vehicle ages or mileage bands causing problems?
Where are applications being passed from one lender to another?
That information tells you much more than the number of logos sitting on a finance panel.
Non-Prime Finance Can Fill A Specific Gap
Non-prime finance gives dealers and brokers another area of lender appetite.
It can be relevant where a customer falls outside mainstream prime criteria because of their credit history or wider circumstances.
That does not mean a non-prime lender approves every customer declined elsewhere. Affordability and responsible lending requirements still apply.
The difference often comes from how the case is assessed.
LMO specialises in non-prime Hire Purchase and takes a human approach to underwriting. Our team can review the circumstances behind an application where a case needs more individual consideration.
For a dealer or broker, that creates another potential route for suitable applications that do not fit elsewhere.
It can be particularly useful when the finance panel already has strong prime coverage but regularly loses customers once an application falls outside that part of the market.
Automated Decisions Do Not Tell The Whole Story
Automation has made motor finance quicker.
Speed matters, particularly when a customer is waiting in a showroom.
There are also applications where additional context can help an underwriter understand what is happening.
A customer may have a historic credit issue that no longer reflects their current position. A self-employed applicant may have income that needs a closer look. Another customer may have circumstances that simply do not fit neatly into an automated process.
Human underwriting gives the lender the ability to review that context.
It does not remove lending criteria. It allows more information to form part of the assessment.
For dealers and brokers dealing with non-prime customers, knowing which lenders offer that type of review can help when deciding where to place an application.
Hire Purchase Can Suit A Broad Range Of Used Stock
The finance product itself also needs to fit the stock. Hire Purchase remains widely used for both new and used vehicles in Ireland.
The structure is straightforward. The vehicle is funded over an agreed term through fixed repayments, with ownership transferring once the agreement requirements and final purchase payment have been met. For dealers carrying used vehicles across several age and price bands, HP can provide useful flexibility.
LMO offers HP on eligible petrol, diesel and hybrid vehicles.
Our current vehicle criteria include cars from 2014 registration onwards, mileage up to 250,000 km, terms from 24 to 60 months, and a maximum vehicle age of 15 years at the end of the agreement.
We can also consider zero-deposit agreements and up to 100% LTV, subject to the customer and application meeting our lending criteria.
For dealers and brokers, those limits are worth comparing with the stock and applications passing through the business each month.
Stock Data Can Show Where Your Finance Panel Has Gaps
The easiest way to review a panel is to start with real dealership data.
Take the vehicles sold over the past three to six months and group them by age. Then look at mileage, retail price, fuel type and finance term. Do the same with declined finance applications. Patterns usually become easier to see.
Perhaps older cars sell well but regularly require shorter finance terms because of lender age limits. Perhaps higher-mileage stock produces enquiries but falls outside the criteria of several lenders. Maybe vehicle criteria are fine and most lost applications relate to customer credit profile.
Those are three different problems. They require three different changes to the finance panel.
The exercise also helps brokers. Reviewing proposals by vehicle and applicant type can show where existing lender coverage is strong and where suitable cases regularly run out of options.
Watch What Your Stock Buyers Are Doing
Finance teams and stock buyers should be talking to each other.
That sounds obvious. In a busy dealership, the two decisions can easily happen separately.
A buyer sees an opportunity at auction and changes the age profile of the forecourt. The finance panel stays the same. The gap only appears later when applications start arriving.
Ireland’s current import figures make this worth reviewing. SIMI says used imports are up 37% year on year, with 63,815 vehicles imported by the end of August 2026. That is a large amount of additional stock entering the Irish market.
If your dealership has changed where it sources vehicles, what it pays or the ages it buys, review finance coverage at the same time.
Brokers Need To Know The Stock Their Dealers Are Selling
Brokers have a slightly different challenge. They may work with several dealerships, each carrying a different stock profile.
One partner may specialise in younger premium cars. Another may sell older vehicles around a lower retail price. Another may have a high proportion of imported stock.
The same lender mix will not always provide equal coverage across all three.
Vehicle criteria should therefore form part of lender placement alongside the customer’s circumstances. Age, mileage, term and vehicle value can quickly rule out options before the credit assessment even starts.
Keeping lender criteria current helps brokers send applications to lenders with a realistic appetite for both parts of the deal: the customer and the car.
Five Questions To Ask About Your Finance Panel
A useful panel review can start with five questions.
- Does it cover the age of vehicles we actually sell? – Look at current age and age at the end of a typical finance term.
- Do lender mileage limits fit our stock? – Use your actual average and upper mileage figures rather than assumptions.
- Do we have enough coverage across different customer profiles? – Look at where declined applications are coming from and whether your panel has a genuine non-prime option.
- Can lenders support the terms our customers commonly need? – Vehicle-age restrictions can reduce the available term and change monthly repayments.
- Where are we repeatedly losing deals? – Decline data is useful commercial information. Review the reason rather than simply recording the outcome.
If the same gap keeps appearing, your finance panel may need to change.
Review Your Finance Panel When Your Stock Changes
Ireland’s used car market is moving.
Used imports are up 37% this year. UK data also shows wide differences in price performance between younger and older stock, with 10-to-15-year-old cars recording 6.9% annual retail price growth in August.
Dealers are responding to those market conditions through the cars they buy. Finance coverage should move with them.
Review vehicle age, mileage and agreement terms across your lender panel. Compare those limits with the stock you actually sell. Then review where customer applications are being declined and whether your lenders cover enough different credit profiles.
For brokers, apply the same process across the dealerships you support.
LMO works with car dealers and brokers across Ireland, providing non-prime Hire Purchase for customers who may fall outside mainstream lending criteria. We combine flexible vehicle criteria with a human approach to underwriting, giving partners another option for suitable cases that need a closer look.
If your current panel has a gap around non-prime customers or the used vehicles your dealers are selling, speak to LMO about becoming a finance partner.