Pre-owned car prices have returned to pre-Covid trends, according to getWorth, a leading online buyer and seller of pre-owned cars. The average used car typically drops in price due to mileage and age, however, the Covid pandemic upended this trend. Factory and port closures, microchip shortages, and other supply chain disruptions caused a severe cutback in new car supply, leading to an increase in demand for used cars. This, combined with low interest rates, pushed used car prices up for the first time in at least a decade.
Now, new car supply has recovered and interest rate increases, fuel price increases, and other living cost increases have reduced affordability, reversing the post-Covid situation. getWorth’s sophisticated pricing tools, based on AI and live market data, show the return to pre-Covid like-for-like price levels, but with a caveat. The added mileage during the pandemic still affects the value of cars.
getWorth’s Chief Financial Officer, Colin Morgan, warns consumers to be careful when buying and financing a car. The post-Covid period saw cars retain high levels of value, which encouraged scalping and flipping, but those days are now over. It’s now turning into a buyer’s market, with attractive deals available for those updating or upgrading their cars. getWorth continually adjusts its prices to make sure its buying offers and cars for sale are attractively priced, based on its daily trading in the live market and its more than 350 cars on the floor.
