Reply To: Used Car prices hardened

[paul-hill_1]

The used car market in general is seeing unprecedented price increases this year with overall wholesale prices increasing by circa 25% during the year so far. Generally “mainstream” cars have shown some of the biggest gains with cars such as the Vauxhall Mokka rising by 40% this year! When you consider the average car depreciates by 15% a year on average the real gains are even greater. The reason for this is simply supply and demand driven by the general lack of new cars and therefore associated used cars coming into the market. In 2016 nearly 2.7M new cars we registered in the UK, in 2020 that number was less than 1.7M…

The main reason for the lack of registrations can be associated to COVID lockdowns / shutdowns etc, this year is different however as the shortage of semiconductors is affecting the ability of Manufacturers to build new cars in quantity, again this is affecting the supply of used cars into the market and an associated rise in prices.

It appears that, in general, our Maseratis have enjoyed better residual values than in previous years or indeed as previously stated by Stewart “gentle depreciation” rather than stone like falls may well be the case on certain models.

I also agree with Tony’s comments, this won’t last forever and when the new car supply returns to more “normal” levels prices with adjust in line with market conditions, I think his advice re cashing in only if you are selling rather than swapping is sound.