Used car prices have dropped by 4.2 per cent in October following a ‘significant’ movement in the market.
Derren Martin, director of valuations for trade used car pricing experts Cap HPI, told Car Dealer Magazine that the fall is the biggest drop since 2011. It’s also the largest fall ever recorded in October while monthly falls of more than three per cent have only ever happened on a trio of other occasions.
Martin described the fall – which works out to an average of an £850 drop per car – as a ‘significant realignment’ but wouldn’t call it a ‘crash’. It contrasts October 2022, however, where used car prices fell by just 0.5 per cent.
Speaking on video to Car Dealer, Martin said: “There’s more cars out there and there’s less demand.
“We haven’t spoken to a single dealer that is stocking up. So when you get more supply, and only selective buying, that obviously affects prices.”
Bucking the trend was electric vehicles, with battery-powered models suffering less of a drop than petrol, diesel and hybrid models.
The biggest used price drop was for the Mitsubishi ASX – which fell by 13.4 per cent – followed by the BMW 2 Series Convertible diesel and the Skoda Karoq, which fell by 12.3 and 11.5 per cent respectively.
In contrast, the car which saw the largest used car price rise was the Dacia Logan diesel – which went up by 6.9 per cent – with the Seat Mii Electric and Toyota Prius increasing by four and 3.9 per cent respectively.
A number of other electric vehicles were on the list of biggest used price rises, too, including the Mazda MX-30 and the Nissan Leaf.