Used car prices reach new high in November, says eBay Motors

The average advertised price of used cars hit a new high for the year in November, according to the latest Market View from eBay Motors Group.

Despite a seasonal slowdown, dealers continued to hold firm on pricing during November. The average prices for the top 50 makes and models on Motors.co.uk increased by 4.7% from October.

The biggest monthly increase in prices was in the independent sector where the average jumped 9.2% from £10,724 to £11,715. Car supermarkets were up 2.7% to £18,176 and franchised dealers were up 2.3% to £19,541.

Auto Trader has reported that the average price of a used car has risen by £3,000 since May.

“Having paid high prices to source cars, dealers acted strategically and held firm on their pricing in November even as the winter slowdown began. This prompted some strong price performances, even on mainstream cars, which will provide a welcome boost to fourth quarter profitability,” said Dermot Kelleher, head of marketing and research at eBay Motors Group.

One of the standout performers was the Ford Fiesta, with three years/30,000 miles examples averaging £19,137 – up 39.4% in the last six months.

Used car dealers are still under-pricing up to 60% of their forecourt stock however, according to data from Real Time Communications (RTC).

Despite 19th consecutive months of rising used car values and the unavoidable trend of high consumer demand and limited vehicle supplies, RTC says retailers are still failing to price to the market.

Cox Automotive has asserted that prices will never dip back to pre-pandemic levels.

Against the backdrop of the used vehicle supply shortage, November stock levels dropped month-on-month by three units to 43 vehicles, the lowest average so far recorded this year by eBay Motors Group.

Average days to sell increased by just over four days month-on-month to 36.8 days. These increases were most acutely felt by franchised dealers (up 22.1% to 33.2 days) and car supermarkets (up 13.8% to 25.4 days). While independents experienced a more marginal increase of 3.3% to 44.7 days.

Kellher added: “The strength of pricing is best illustrated by the speed of sale achieved by some of the more expensive price bands, with vehicles costing £20,000 to £40,000 selling the fastest, averaging 30 days in stock, and those priced over £40,000 averaging just 33.6 days. Proof that customers were prepared to pay top dollar to buy the best possible used car, especially those no longer prepared to wait for new car delivery times to improve.”

Hybrid was the fastest selling fuel type in November, averaging 34.5 days to sell, followed by diesel (36 days), electric (37.7 days) and petrol (38.5 days).

Internal combustion engine cars continued to dominate stock listings, with petrol accounting for 53.3%, diesel 43.5%, hybrid 2.4% and electric 0.8%. Similar averages were also seen in the number of ad views: petrol (52.6%), diesel (44.2%), hybrid (2.2%) and electric (0.9%).

Top 10 Fastest Selling Makes/Models on Motors.co.uk – November 2021