Scotty, Prices are shooting up in Southern California as the plandemic shut down everything from auto plants to ports where cars were imported through. Lots are empty and Craigslist is nuts. Oh, and politicians made up their own special science to create this mess.
Are you hearing anything about this and when will it settle down? I bought a 2018 CPO Rav4 with 62k miles on it for $16,900 *at a dealer* two months ago and they now want $21,500 for something with more miles on it and a lot more scratches.
By the way, it hurts when you talk used car prices in Texas and Tennessee, here in Southern California, people demand top blue book for unmaintained crap-condition cars. There's enough idiots willing to pay for it, Scotty-taught guys like me have a tough time.
Thanks for everything you've done to embolden me as an owner, buyer and consumer!
Unfortunately, this is the case for now and it seems it will last a long time.
Rising used car prices are largely a result of a few factors related to sales of new vehicles: 1. Reduced factory production as a result of assembly line, COVID-19 related closures; 2. A chip shortage, as Scotty has noted; 3. Pent up demand, as the pandemic begins to ease; 4. Manufacturers, not wanting to waste the opportunity brought up by these other factors, deliberately cutting production to raise prices, permanently paring down production, increasing profit margins; 5. The inflationary effects of stimulus money.
All of this, plus the plethora of digitalization of vehicles, has put the average cost of a vehicle to over $30K. That's too rich for many people, so they move their sights over to the used car market, creating increased demand and raising prices, at each tier of the used vehicle market.
It's a perfect example of the multi-factorial "ripple effect." It's also bad news
Local car dealers have said supply is especially low because of stimulus checks. I don't know when it will end, but I wouldn't keep my hopes up. It only takes a few months for prices to go up, and much longer for them to go down.
With financing the way it is, on American cars I would just buy new. They are practically paying you to take them between 84 month financing and thousands off MSRP.
been there, here in Florida, used car prices are going nuts. $5000 will get you pretty much junk. but when new ones are going for $30k good used ones are outrageous. Is it any better in Nevada or Oregon?
I can specifically answer the question about Oregon... Sky high CPO prices.
Having lived in Southern Nevada, they mostly mirror Southern California pricing because they can get away with it. The biggest difference that I personally experienced was at Findlay Toyota in Henderson, Nevada. They will throw busty hotties dressed for clubbing when they screw up and endanger your kids because they failed to reattach the middle row seats in your Sienna properly.
It's not just happening in southern California, it's nationwide; some areas may be hit with higher prices than others.
I read that used pick up truck prices have risen 27% in the last 12 months, insane.
I see Scotty addressed this topic on a late night post from May 8.
@7-3punchina3-4 made the point about stimulus check sales... Think about the repossessed car sales that will hit the market :-0 Especially Nissans.
Scotty mentioned how Nissan has been doing some shady bad credit (subprime?) loan deals. Considering how Nissan Certified Pre-Owned cars are so voluminous on most dealer lots... This looks like Nissan will cannibalize itself. Too bad, I have extended family deep in that corporation, they'll lose a lot. Of course, they sold their souls to Renault two decades ago. The devil will be collecting soon.
@toyotagrl - True point about some areas being harder hit. I briefly shopped for one of my kids in a lowly-populated area... Unbelievably to me, their used car (especially CPO Toyotas) were higher than the entire Southern California mega-market. So, I bought down here for her.