JAKARTA — The 2026 Eid al-Fitr holiday is expected to be a blessing for the automotive market, especially for used cars, given the high demand for vehicles for homecoming and long holidays.

Financing industry practitioner and observer Jodjana Jody believes that this moment is eagerly awaited by the multifinance industry to distribute financing for new and used vehicles.

"However, currently, the stock of new vehicles is quite limited, so used cars could benefit from the usually high demand," he told Bisnis on Thursday (March 5, 2026).

Nevertheless, he did not deny that multifinance companies will face challenges in distributing used car financing in 2026.

"Currently, multifinance companies are quite selective because the industry's non-performing financing (NPF) has not fully recovered. The financing strategy is still focused on supporting financing because the majority of used car buyers still use credit," Jodjana said.

Furthermore, he believes that the volume of used car transactions has continued to increase since the Covid-19 pandemic. Before the pandemic, the used car market was equivalent to approximately 1.5 times the value of new cars, and now it is twice the value of the new car market.

However, he believes another issue that needs attention is the uncertain global situation following the outbreak of the US-Israel war with Iran, which could cause interest rates to rise due to inflation.

"If the war drags on, the world will experience an energy crisis, increasing inflation everywhere. As a result, interest rates will rise, and consumer credit rates will also increase. This is very difficult amidst declining purchasing power," he explained.

However, Jodjana believes that so far, the impact of the conflict in the Middle East on the multifinance industry is still unclear. However, he suggested that changes could occur after Eid al-Fitr 2026.