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Advertised used car prices and dealer stock levels dipped in June as a result of buyers focusing on older essential purchase cars, according to MOTORS’ Market View.
The average price of used cars fell £222 (-1.3%) MoM from £17,390 to £17,168. This represents a YoY drop of -7.3% (£1,343). The fall was mostly driven by franchised dealers who saw prices slide -4% (£970) from £24,067 to £23,097.
Lucy Tugby, marketing director of MOTORS, said: “With only small downward movements of prices and stock levels in June, we are seeing further signs of the relative stability that has characterised the first half of the year.
“The focus for buyers in June was on essential purchase cars with older, cheaper, combustion engine models attracting plenty of online attention. We expect this to continue into July as family and personal budgets start turning to summer holiday spending.”
Buyers researching their next vehicle purchase online focused on older, medium size models priced up to £10,000.
Prices for H1 2024 dropped 1.8% from £17,475 in January, with older and younger profile cars experiencing the biggest price drops.
Vehicles aged over 10 years fell 2.3% (or £165) from £7,060 to £6,895, a YoY drop of 3.1%. While cars under two years dropped -1.4% (£444) from £31,134 to £30,690, down -4.2% YoY.
While cars aged two to give years experienced the highest YoY fall at -9%, the fall in prices for cars aged two to five years steadied and dippede just -0.5% (£104) MoM to £19,296.
Tugby said: “While this period of stability is positive news for the sector, dealers will be far from complacent, especially as they plan their stocking needs for July matching both online and local demand with availability in the market.”
Dealer stock levels dropped from 54 to 51 units MoM and down from 55 units 12 months ago.
Franchised dealers experienced the biggest drops down from 63 to 56 units (-11%), compared to 65 units last June (-14%). Independent dealers remained steady at 39 units, one unit down MoM.