What's going on with used car prices?!?

[MariaDingbat]

Our car is getting on in years and I'm looking for a new (2nd hand) car at the moment and I'm aghast at the prices. 7 years ago I bought a 2 year old Honda Civic with 40k miles for £8k, now a 4 year old Nissan Micra with the same mileage is £12k! I know it's been 7 years but a 2 year old Honda Civic is now about £16k and my wages haven't gone up enough in 7 years to pay that much extra.

I had hoped to upgrade the car, but I'll be lucky if I can get anything even close to as nice as my old one. Am I mad and completely out of touch or are the prices a bit bonkers at the moment?

Prices started going up because people didn’t want to be using public transport and risk getting Covid so demand was high and prices rocketed.

Prices of decent second hand cars have also increased because global steel shortage, reduced manufacture of new cars.

Prices are insane I spent 2,000 fixing my car because I couldn't equal it despite it costing me 4,000 two years ago the same car was now closer to 5,000 so I would be paying more for an older car iyswim it was cheaper to fix it

www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-10473767/amp/The-second-hand-cars-soaring-price-cost-new-versions.html

@Theunamedcat

Prices are insane I spent 2,000 fixing my car because I couldn't equal it despite it costing me 4,000 two years ago the same car was now closer to 5,000 so I would be paying more for an older car iyswim it was cheaper to fix it

What?! 😂😂

Second hand price for cars has rocketed because of the global delay on new car manufacture, due to covid and semi conductor shortages.

Chips. Severe shortage means new cars are not rolling off the production lines.

I’m so glad I read the newspapers.

Sorry quotes wrong post! Didn’t mean this one! 💐

@3001signon

Prices started going up because people didn’t want to be using public transport and risk getting Covid so demand was high and prices rocketed.

What?! 🤣

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58993851.amp

My two year old car is now worth two grand more than I paid for it. DH has just bought a three year old car that was more expensive than brand new but there were no new cars available without a considerable wait.

Lots of almost new second hand cars are now selling for more than the brand new equivalent as people don't want to / can't sit in the 9 months plus waiting lists lots of new cars have.

If you are prepared to wait (and was looking at buying new, do that).

I bought a 2019 mazda 2 for £12k in August. My car is now selling for £16k (2019 with the mileage I have done now, not the mileage that I bought it with).

The chip shortage is pretty much sorted now, as far as I understand. In terms of the numbers of chips reaching car manufacturers. The issue now is the huge backlog which will take a long while to clear. Add in complications in shipping to the UK, which means that companies cannot necessarily just build faster for UK market. So prices will come down at something, just probably not this year

In fairness I think you got an amazing deal on the Honda, because I was looking at that time and I didn't see anything that good.

But yes, prices are very high now. I would have to think twice whether to replace my car or not.

My car was written off last year and the insurance paid out exactly the same as I had paid for it 3.5 years earlier. It's all a bit crazy

A relative has had an offer from the garage to buy their 2 year old car for more than they paid for it.

Yeah, they're sky high at the moment.

Tried to replace my written off car recently - for a like-for-like model (compared to when I bought it, not when it got written off - 3 years old, under 50k miles, basic trim, same engine size, etc), it was about 4k more than I paid a few years ago.

Friend of mine has just sold his car for 1.5k more than he bought it for a year ago.

If you can hang on for a bit longer, I'd wait til 2023 when they will (hopefully) have come down a bit!

This is all quite depressing! Thanks for sharing your first hand experiences, is really helpful. We had hoped to get a new car next year but then had a big shock when it was serviced on Monday, the quoted repairs were 3 times what the car is currently worth! I think I can get enough fixed to just get it through the MOT next month and then I'm going to use a mix of hope and prayer to get it to 2023!

I'm with you op. Same situation and noticed a price rise.

It’s the microchip shortage so there’s a new car shortage.

If your near greater london there’s going to be a price jump between ulez compliance cars as well after Kahn’s announcement on Friday.
If your not near Greater London there will be some great bargains to be had in the near future.

The other issue is the parts shortage so cars crashed cars can’t be repaired so are being written off when they would have been repaired, so that’s adding a few more to the market as well.

Yep. We need a new car as we're expecting twins and need a car with three full size seats in the rear for car seats. We can't wait until 2023 to see if they come down, so will be stuck buying something overpriced due to necessity. Buying a new car isn't an option on our incomes.

My old banger is about to die so I'm looking too, and have had to increase my budget more than once!

I ordered a new car in September, was told it would be delivered Dec/Jan. Just got told that a lot of the supply chain was in the Ukraine and mini are having to look at their supply chain again,. I have no idea when this new car is going to appear.
Meanwhile the 2nd hand mini I brought 8 years ago which is now 16 years old may be sellable for as much as I paid for it. It still will have cost money - lots of work has been needed to keep it alive, but similar cars on autotrader are going for prices close to what I paid 8 years ago.

My car is worth £2k more than I paid for it 18 months ago, unheard of.

Because of all the low emission zones being introduced forcing people to change their car.