Used car prices fall despite rising demand

New data has revealed that the average price of a used car fell marginally to £16,410 in June.

According to Auto Trader, customer confidence has continued to grow in the first half of the year, with demand on its platform rising 12.4% year-on-year in June alone and used cars selling on average in 29 days compared to 34 day sin the same month in 2019.

Confidence is being driven by falling inflation, with the GFK Consumer Confidence Index improving for the third consecutive month in June.

Stock levels

However, while demand is rising stock levels are falling with supply down 4.2% year-on-year in June. Cars aged 1-3-years and 3-5-years recorded drops of 20.6% and 16.7% respectively.

Richard Walker, Auto Trader’s data and insights director, said:

“As we enter the second half of the year, our data shows that the fundamentals of the used car market remain solid; consumer demand is robust, and cars are selling at pace, which combined with the softening in supply, means retail prices continue to stabilise. Although this balance of market dynamics is working to return retail prices to seasonal norms, it’s also affecting retailers’ traditional stock profiles and making the job of finding profitable cars all the more challenging. It’s why using insights over instincts to power your forecourt strategy is more important than ever.”