Demand driving continued growth

Used car prices have continued to enjoy “exceptionally strong growth” through October.

This is based on analysis of the circa 451,000 vehicles currently advertised on the Auto Trader marketplace.

It found that on a like-for-like basis in the week between 5 and 11 October, prices increased 8.5% on the same period last year, marking 23 weeks of consecutive price growth. This steep trajectory is being driven largely by the imbalance of supply and demand in the market.

Demand for petrol increased 12% while supply fell 1.7%. Similarly, diesel demand recorded an increase of 2.2% but supply dropped a significant 14.7%. As a result, petrol and diesel vehicles recorded a like-for-like price increase of 8.9% and 9.4% respectively.

Auto Trader director of data and insight Richard Walker said: “Half way into October and it’s already clear that the market is continuing to defy the naysayers that predicted a price crash in September. We’re maintaining exceptional levels of traffic on our marketplace, and despite the introduction of new tiered restrictions across the country, based on previous analysis done on areas where restrictions have already been tightened, such as Leicester, we’re confident it will have marginal impact on demand at this stage.

“In fact, our research points to new opportunities; last week we saw an increase in people considering owning a car to be more important than it was before Covid-19, and the aversion to public transport^[2] is now at its highest rate since we began tracking it in the summer. With supply constraints an ongoing issue for many retailers, we don’t foresee any imminent factors that will affect price growth beyond the typical seasonal trends,” he said.