It used to be that dreaded sticker shock that came from the prices of new cars. Now used car prices are just as bad.
How bad? The average used car sold for $29,594 in January, up from $22,676 last year, a 30% increase, Edmunds.com reports.
On individual models, price inflation can be starker.
Even the price of a modest three-year-old Nissan Versa subcompact car has risen 66% to an average of $16,366, Edmunds says. The starting price of a new Versa is $15,080.
Looking at the inflated price of the average used car, “it seems like a new-car price,” said Jessica Caldwell, Edmund’s director of insights.
It’s not just the newer used cars. “What we see is the older used cars are increasing just as much,” she said.
The average transaction price of a nine-year-old car rose 43% in a year.
The coronavirus pandemic may be waning at the moment, but outrageous prices on new and used cars alike are one of its lingering symptoms. The shortage of new cars, spawned in part by the lack of computer chips, rolled right into the used market.
At one end of the used-car market, motorists are being forced to pay top dollar for basic transportation. Among three-year-old models, the Versa, the venerable Dodge Grand Caravan minivan (up 69% to $25,789), Toyota’s Prius hybrid (up 61% to $28,758) and even the Chevrolet Sonic, a discontinued subcompact (up 55% to $18,473), are basic vehicles used to get from Point A to B that have seen some of the biggest increases.
