For quite a while now the used car market has been a bit strange. Automakers struggled to build enough new cars and as such, used car prices skyrocketed. Now, there’s strong evidence that those high prices are finally starting to deflate.
According to a new study from iSeeCars, used-car pricing just dropped on average for the last two months year over year. The firm says that it’s the first such downturn since June 2020 and could spell a huge shift in the market in the near future. “We’re still a long way from ‘normal’ but there are clear signs the elevated prices of the past 2-plus years are coming to an end,” said Karl Brauer, Executive Analyst at iSeeCars.com.
In September, the used market average price grew by almost 8 percent. In October that number dwindled to just 3.6 percent before average prices dropped to 2.1 percent less than in 2021 for November. December cemented the decline with prices 3 percent lower than they were in the same month during 2021.
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The biggest drops mostly came from cars valued below $30,000 but they were led by one that’s a bit more expensive. The Tesla Model 3 saw an average price drop of 16.8 percent, down to $43,817. That’s $8,822 less than it was in September ago on the used market. Of course, that’s largely driven by Tesla slashing prices on new cars more than anything else.
Beyond the Tesla, the Nissan Kicks, Ford Mustang, and Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid all saw drops of 11 percent or more in value between September and December of last year.
Not All Prices Falling
Despite the drop in the market as a whole, some segments are still experiencing a boom. For instance, some performance cars, electric cars, and hybrids are still riding that wave. The study found that the Toyota Prius Prime is up some 22.5 percent, about $5,891 to $32,131 on average over 2021s pricing.
The Nissan Leaf and Chevy Bolt also saw rises of more than 20 percent. The Porsche 911 came in fourth with a 16.8 percent jump to an average used-car price of $198,076 in December of 2022. That all flies in the face of an average drop across all cars of 3 percent.
The future is still a little unclear but it seems likely that prices will continue to drop for the next few months at least. That should be good news for anyone who’s been squirreling away cash waiting for the right time to pull the trigger on a used vehicle.
