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?

@sst1234

Anyone still think lockdowns were a good idea? Sorry, but it essentially goes comes down to the useless lockdowns that people loved so much. Global microchip shortage, supply chain disruption, inflation. Oh well, at least people got to stay at home, watch Netflix and bake banana bread with the kids. Who cares about the consequences that will last for decades.

The lockdowns were a once only event that'll never happen again. They only happened because govts all over the World panicked at seeing other countries go into lockdown and were scared of not doing the same. Realistically, it only happened because technology allowed it to happen due to the timing of the internet expansion over the past decade or two. If we'd had covid in, say, 1990 or 2000, or even 2010, there'd have been no lockdowns on the same scale as society/economy couldn't have functioned. It was all one big societal experiment and won't ever be repeated as it caused too much damage to the economy all over the Worls.

This was predicted I don't know why but our friend is a mechanic and he told us to buy a new used car before Xmas as prices would shoot up!

@goodnightgrumble

This was predicted I don't know why but our friend is a mechanic and he told us to buy a new used car before Xmas as prices would shoot up!

Car prices were rising last year, so yes, people knew back then. Of course, if you weren't looking for a car you wouldn't be aware.

I recently purchased a new car and went to many garages, most of them said the same thing. Like others have said there’s a global shortage on a chip all new cars need. Only two factories in the world made them and one burned down so there’s one factory making the chips for the whole world. New cars are taking up to 10-14 months to be delivered but at the moment you can get a brand new car for the same price as an older car if you get it on finance as new car deals have a low apr whereas second hand cars have a much higher apr. Because of this people are buying new cars and waiting the long wait time so there’s no part exchange cars coming in to the garages so what they do have they have to mark up the price to cover all their costs.

Get an older car then. As an example, I've found a fair few pre 2010 volkswagens that are actually low mileage and in good condition and cheap (less than 4k).

I'd rather have the older ones. Mine is pre 2010 and is going very well, never had a major issue with it in the nearly 5 years I've owned it. They tend to be better than newer cars and less electrics to fix.

I recently wrote off my car and got a tiny bit less that I’d paid for it 6 years ago (with 50,000 miles not 8,000 I’d bought it with). I’d also trashed it during its ownership, used it as a farm car and dented the wheel arch on a gate.

I lucked out getting a new car at a main dealer, it was a trade in that had passed all its safety checks and been serviced. They sold it a discount with a good warranty as they didn’t have to advertise it.

anyone still think lockdowns were a good idea? Sorry, but it essentially goes comes down to the useless lockdowns that people loved so much. Global microchip shortage, supply chain disruption, inflation.‘

One of biggest factories in the world supplying semi-conductors to the car industry burnt down in the middle of covid. Apparently it will take them years to manufacture the machines they need to make the parts never mind start producing again.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-56486242.amp

Surely you can sell your second hand car for more too?

Small cars have gone up especially because of petrol prices. I'm thinking of selling mine and retiring

@AllOfUsAreDead

Get an older car then. As an example, I've found a fair few pre 2010 volkswagens that are actually low mileage and in good condition and cheap (less than 4k).

I'd rather have the older ones. Mine is pre 2010 and is going very well, never had a major issue with it in the nearly 5 years I've owned it. They tend to be better than newer cars and less electrics to fix.

I'm in Ireland and our 13year old car is in bits, every light on the dashboard keeps coming on, the seat belt sensors are fecked and keep randomly beeping etc so we set about looking for a new( secondhand) car. We only bought it 1.5years ago for 1700e and that was the normal price for that car. Now the same car is going for 3.5-4k! We kind of have a double whammy here because a lot of our 2nd hand cars were imported from the UK but Brexit has made it pricier to import. We have just paid almost 10grand for a 5 year old small Toyota hybrid, while waiting for paperwork to go through(it is an import) in the 2 weeks since we agreed a price on ours the garage has jacked up the price by a grand for the same car. It is bonkers out there.

I took a pcp out in Dec 2019. I got it valued when it went in for its service in December just gone, I am over £4.5k in equity, 2 years into a 4 year pcp which is usually unheard of. I was tempted to sell it back to them and buy a an old second hand car seeing as I now don't have to go to an office so am doing minimal mileage. But the type, age and mileage of car you can pick up for £4k nowadays is awful. So nobody wins nowadays.

I would stick to your civic. Honda are a reliable brand. If you own outright then think about all the money you are saving by not having monthly payments for a newer car

[quote Kazzyhoward]@EvilPea

It will come crashing down at some point when supply gets ramped back up again.

That depends really on the next few years. We're pretty close to 2030 and people are being told that there'll be no new petrol/diesel cars from 2030. That means manufacturers will be reducing and stopping production over the next few years as they move over to hybrid and electric. There'll be high demand from people wanting to keep ICE cars for various reasons, so demand for used cars may well remain high. Prices of ICE cars could really rise over the next few years due to continued shortage of supply. Manufacturers and dealers have a difficult balancing act.[/quote]
It will be hugely dependent where you live and what you drive.

Have to come in to Greater London or a clean air zone fairly regularly and anything non ulez compliant is going to cost you.

Anything ulez compliant will obviously go up, and hold their money as people race to change. There’s some real surprises as to what’s not compliant, and there will be some big losses.
I know a lot of people who have bought cheaper cars or vans until the supply kicks back in to get a deal on a new one.

The van issue is a big one at the moment, if you need one for work you need one and can’t be without one. They are commanding high prices, but they are also hardest hit with clean air zones compliance. There will be lots on the market and not that many people who will be able to buy one without worrying about a daily charge.

@Kazzyhoward

My 13 year old car got written off by a stupid neighbour who left her handbrake off. A couple of years ago, it's "value" was around £1,000 (small, cheap car). I nearly fell off my chair when her insurance company offered me £2,200 for it. I'd already decided to try to haggle the value up whatever they offered, so managed to get them up to £2,500. After the call, I wondered whether they'd made a mistake so I did a bit of research to see what similar age/condition cars were selling for. Found one at a local second hand forecourt for £2,999 so ended up pretty miffed that I could probably have haggled to get even more. Ironically though, I'd already decided to keep the car and get it repaired - it only cost £1,500 so I made a few hundred pounds profit on the accident. That made me more interested in the used car market and showed that there's a massive shortage - our local garages only had about half the number of cars they usually have - the forecourts were visibly emptier than normal. It's definitely the shortage of new cars being manufactured meaning that the trade in's/PX's aren't coming through to the used market, so people who usually buy ex-demos, ex-leases etc can't upgrade and in turn don't upgrade theirs either - goes right through down to the bargain basement ones.

Completely unreasonable to be miffed that a company might make a little profit to cover their costs and you know, pay wages.

Absolutely laughable. THis place gets ever more moronic.

@WinniesHunny

And you think insurance companies need more money?! Who's being moronic!

I was assured, when my car got written off, that the company used the Glass Guide to price a car and I would get an offer that matched it. So I paid my £3 to access my cars details (this was about 15 years ago now) to see what it would be. Lo and behold my offer came in......£900 less than the Glass Guide. I queried this and Mr Insurance went off and then came back apologising that it must have been an admin error. Oh yes, chinny reckon! Of course they go in with a lower offer hoping that you will accept it straight off, a surprising number of people do, or haggle up a bit but not as much as the GG would have them pay.

So I was not being greedy, simply keeping them to the promise they made. If it were to happen again I would again get the GG valuation to use as a benchmark for negotiations as my insurance should pay what the car was worth on the day it was written of, that is in the T&C's.

Written off....and I should add that they assured me it would be the dealership price they would pay not the private sale price (which was still higher than they offered!)

@PyongyangKipperbang I don't know why you think I've had a go at me.

My point was toward the person who thinks because a car is up for sale at 3 grand, she should have got 3 grand for it. That would mean the garage working for nothing before paying prep charges, MOT, service, utilities and paying the poor salesman. How on earth you've taken that to be a defence of the insurance industry is completely beyond comprehension.

It was an attack on the entitled attitude of those who want everything without paying for it.

That should read "had a go at you"

[quote WinniesHunny]@PyongyangKipperbang I don't know why you think I've had a go at me.

My point was toward the person who thinks because a car is up for sale at 3 grand, she should have got 3 grand for it. That would mean the garage working for nothing before paying prep charges, MOT, service, utilities and paying the poor salesman. How on earth you've taken that to be a defence of the insurance industry is completely beyond comprehension.

It was an attack on the entitled attitude of those who want everything without paying for it.[/quote]
She SHOULD have got three grand for it if her insurance states, as mine does, that it will be replaced like for like. It wasnt, she doesnt have enough money to buy the same car/age.mileage which she should have. And she HAS paid for it, in her insurance premiums.

I think your claim of lack of comprehension is on the money :)

@LampLighter414

I took a pcp out in Dec 2019. I got it valued when it went in for its service in December just gone, I am over £4.5k in equity, 2 years into a 4 year pcp which is usually unheard of. I was tempted to sell it back to them and buy a an old second hand car seeing as I now don't have to go to an office so am doing minimal mileage. But the type, age and mileage of car you can pick up for £4k nowadays is awful. So nobody wins nowadays.

I would stick to your civic. Honda are a reliable brand. If you own outright then think about all the money you are saving by not having monthly payments for a newer car

This is what I was wondering about...I bought my first ever new car on an interest free finance deal just over three years ago and I’m due to make the final balloon payment in a couple of months. The car is now worth way more than the £5k I owe on it, and I mostly work from home now so I don’t do anything like the mileage I did when I bought it. I’d love to cash in on this somehow, but I’d still need a car, and if all the other second hand cars are massively inflated too it still seems like the cheapest thing to do is just pay it off.

Same with my house...worth a mad amount now but I can’t seem to release any actual cash to pay for my massive fucking fuel bills. Dammit!

@negomi90

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 mini the same 16 years old bought for 9k two years ago 2k was offered, now it's worth 5k. It's a convertible so I'm hanging onto it only 40k on the clock, always passes MOT car prices are mad.

Boat and caravan prices are also astonishing

I ok ordered a new car last year. Unlikely to arrive before June this year …. People don’t want to wait so the second hand market has jumped ..

@Aniita

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

I work in the industry and I would love the shortages to be over but they really aren't and in some areas it's getting worse. Most of the queries I get are asking for improvements and there's nothing I can do. We're expecting the shortages last until at least 2023, possibly longer.

@Dimondsareforever

I ok ordered a new car last year. Unlikely to arrive before June this year …. People don’t want to wait so the second hand market has jumped ..

I ordered mine in September for delivery in December but it's finally arriving next week. I'm lucky compared to people ordering now.