Auto Trader has gone on the record to announce that the steep rise in used car prices is coming to an end, at least for now. The boom is showing signs of slowing.
The report is running in Car Dealer mag which is quoting Auto Trader CEO Nathan Coe citing data showing that the average used car price sold on Auto Trader hit £19,852 during the week beginning November 15. But this is just a tiny rise of 0.38% compared to the previous week.
This stands in stark contrast to the rest of this year when we have seen Auto Trader report huge weekly rises. And we have seen prices rise every week for 81 weeks in a row.
Looking at the granular detail, Auto Trader reports that some massive hikes still continued into last week, such as a Land Rover Defender 90 jumping by 138.2 per cent to £79,364 in the past 12 months.
The Mercedes CLK rose by 52.7 per cent to £8,438 and Seat Alhambra by 50.9 per cent to make an average asking price of £18,741.
At the other end of the trend, the BMW 8 Series average asking price is now £61,564 – a drop of 5.2 per cent less on its price this time last year.
But it seems the escalation is petering out – at least for a while, who knows?