Used car prices average £12,967
The average price of a used car reached a record £12,967 in November according to the Auto Trader Retail Price Index.
The record high was mirrored across the various fuel types tracked by the Index. The average price of a used petrol vehicle last month was £11,202, the highest rate recorded, as was both the £20,828 average price for alternatively fuelled vehicles (AFVs) and the £19,978 for pure electric vehicles (EV). The average sticker price for a used diesel was £14,630, which was just £73 less than October’s record high of £14,556.
However, the Index revealed that the rate of growth has been steadily slowing across the board. The average price of a used car recorded an annual increase of four per cent in November, which marks the lowest increase since August 2017. Year-on-year (YoY) growth reached a peak of seven per cent in June this year but has been slowing each subsequent month.
Commenting on the findings, Karolina Edwards-Smajda, Auto Trader’s director of commercial products, said, ‘At circa 35%, finance currently accounts for a relatively small proportion of purchases in the used car market. However, as the latest industry results highlight, as the average cost of used cars increase, the more vital finance is becoming in the second-hand buying journey. With the average three-year new car cycle fuelling the market, finance enables consumers to buy younger, more desirable and crucially, more expensive second-hand cars.’
