LETTER

Shortage of used cars?

 

When the car industry fell apart in 2009 with the Great Recession, the number of vehicles it produced fell sharply, and that drop continued for several years. Today, 2017, there are fewer cars from those recession years available to budget-minded buyers in the used car market.

At the same time, growth in the new car leasing has upset the market even more, as a flood of 1-, 2- and 3-year-old cars come back off lease and end up on dealers’ lots.

To anyone looking for a 2009 or a 2010 model, your odds are not good because they didn't sell that many. Add this to the explosion of leasing in 2012 and 2013 and even higher for 2014, and we get a bizarre supply line. The flood of newer model used cars coming off lease and entering the marketplace is putting downward price pressure on some of those models, even as the average price of used cars rises because of the fleet's age: Younger cars cost more.

So your older trade-in is likely worth more than it was at the same time last year, and the newer used car you might be considering might be a bit less expensive than it might have been last year.  Keep all this in mind when you plan your next auto purchase. The news may not be so bad.

Sylvain Brunet
Chelsea