The metro and non-metro regions in India’s used car market rarely agree on anything. Metro and non-metro buyers show different preferences on body type, features, on whether they even want a gearbox they have to operate themselves. On one point they agree – the Maruti Suzuki Swift is the most bought used car in the country, and it holds that spot in the biggest cities and the smallest towns alike.

For most of these buyers, the Swift is their first car. People reach for it when they have decided to stop depending on cabs, or when an older family car has started costing more at the workshop than it is worth. At that point a buyer wants the safe choice. Across 33 million users, the country keeps landing on the same one.

The Cars24 Team-BHP Gears of Growth report shows that the Swift holds a 4.93 percent share of all used car transactions nationally in 2025. In metro markets it leads at 5 percent. In non-metro markets it leads again at 4.80 percent. No other model in the report’s rankings appears at the top of more than one list. The Swift tops all three.

A lead that holds in every geography

Nationally, the second-placed Wagon R sits at 3.47 percent, nearly a percentage and a half behind the Swift. In non-metro markets the distance is wider still: the Swift’s 4.80 percent share leads the second-placed Swift Dzire at 3.08 percent. In a market where the entire top 10 is separated by about three percentage points, that is a commanding margin.

Source: Cars24 Team-BHP Gears of Growth 2025 Report

Below the top spot the two lists pull apart fast. Metro buyers put the Honda City fourth and the Baleno fifth, both cars the report links to upgrade demand, newer model years and automatic gearboxes. Non-metro buyers rank the Swift Dzire second and push the Alto into their top 10, cars the report calls value-led and cheap to keep running. Two very different markets, one shared first choice.

Why the used Swift travels where other models cannot

The report records that the second-hand Swift leads across all three markets. The reasons behind it sit in plain sight across the rest of the data.

First, the Swift is a hatchback, and hatchbacks still own this market. They make up 52 percent of all used car transactions in 2025, against 32 percent for SUVs and 16 percent for sedans. The report calls hatchbacks the backbone of the used market, cheap to run and easy to thread through city traffic. The Swift sits dead centre of that demand.

Second, the Swift fits how India actually drives. Manual gearboxes account for 72 percent of used car sales, and that share runs highest outside the metros. Most used Swifts are manual, frugal on fuel and cheap to fix, which lines them up with the largest pool of used car buyers.

Third, supply and resale, which buyers feel directly. Maruti has sold Swifts in volume since the mid-2000s, and its service network reaches towns most brands never bother with. For a first-time used car buyer, that cuts two ways. Any local mechanic can fix it, and when the time comes to sell, a Swift moves fast because the next buyer trusts it for the same reasons. The report puts the Swift’s lead down to this appeal across price points and age groups. People buy what they know they can repair anywhere and sell without a fight.

What the Swift’s lead does not mean

The data deserves an honest reading. These are transactions on Cars24, drawn from more than 33 million users as of December 2025, not national registrations. Part of the Swift’s lead is simply supply: it tops the used charts partly because so many were sold new. And topping the charts is not the same as being the right car for everyone. The same report shows the Creta as the only SUV in the national top 10, proof that a growing group of buyers wants something the Swift is not.

The lead will may not hold forever either. SUV share of the used market has more than doubled since 2023, from 15 percent to 32 percent. Today’s new SUVs are the used stock of 2027 and 2028, and as that supply matures the hatchback’s grip on the top of the charts can loosen.

For now, the finding holds. In a used car market splitting into two Indias, one upgrading and one just arriving, the Swift is the answer both keep giving.

About the data

All figures in this article are sourced from the Cars24 x Team BHP Gears of Growth 2025 report, based on Cars24’s internal transaction data comprising over 33 million users as of December 2025. Model shares refer to the share out of total used car transactions.